Val Prieto was talking about it last week, and now Mary O’Grady asks, Is Fidel Castro Dead, Again?

It’s not just a Halloween thing; O’Grady is asking since this time Nelson Bocaranda, who has been writing about Hugo Chávez’s health, tweeted,

#Runrunes MEDIO Cuba: La verdad de la “salud” de Fidel y la molestia de Juanita Castro por nuestro mensaje – ow.ly/evh1X

— Nelson Bocaranda S.(@NelsonBocaranda) October 16, 2012

And in his October 16 article (in Spanish) asserted, as O’Grady points out,

By Monday afternoon there was still no official word from Havana. But Mr. Bocaranda stuck with his story. He tweeted: “I reiterate that we will have news from Cuba in the next few days. The delay is not my fault. I am sorry.”

Bocaranda is taking a huge risk by saying this, because he’s laying his credibility on the line, while the news has very little to do with actual fact but a lot to do with a Communist regime’s hold on power.

Cuba is a totalitarian state where the government has a stranglehold on information.

Five years ago, I wrote in my then-Pajamas Media (now PJMedia), article,

Throughout the past year the world has been treated to a series of videos and photos showing the ailing Castro wearing a jogging suit while entertaining visiting dignitaries, most prominently his disciple Hugo Chavez. Chavez, who is providing Cuba 80,000 barrels of oil daily, always returns from these trips exulting about how well Fidel is recovering.

After each of these, the Cuban government’s newspaper, Granma, repeats the same carefully crafted message the Cuban people have been hearing for nearly fifty years: to continue the struggle, to strive for the impossible. The US is “a decaying empire that threatens us all”. It also reminds Cubans that they too, should endure their sorrows – sorrows inflicted by Castro’s own dictatorship – without complaint. The bottom line of the message is, Nothing is ever going to change.

But the reality is that things will change, and will change rapidly immediately following the news of the death. Everything, from large-scale civil upheaval from a people long-oppressed by a cruel government, to a large number of exiled Cubans seeking to reunite with their relatives by bringing them to the USA, to a total collapse of Cuban society, can not be dismissed as a possibility.

The existing Cuban power structure will collapse.

When Castro dies, will the Cuban government release the information at the time of the death? That is very unlikely. Even with all the behind-the-scenes preparations that may or may not have taken place over the past twelve months, there will be a delay because those in power will try to hold on to power for as long as they possibly can.

So the question is, for how long will the news of Castro’s death be delayed?

I stand by my words.

Related:
New Travel Law Just Another Survival Tactic for Castro

I took a look at the poll and it didn’t take long to notice some ….interestingissues to wit:

This is the sixth release of an 11-week tracking poll of Latino registered voters. Each week impreMedia and Latino Decisions will release a new rolling cross-section of 300 completed interviews with Latino registered voters across all 50 states. Battleground interviewers are combined across all six weeks and are 267 completed interviews, with Florida accounting for the largest share of battleground states.

So the battle ground figures in this poll are actually mini samples taken over six weeks while opinions might be changing. That’s bad enough but consider one more thing:

Battleground states: FL, NV, CO, AZ, OH, NH, NC, VA, IA, MO (all 7 points or smaller margin in current presidential polls)

Forget the insanity of trying to extrapolate the latino vote over fifty states based on a 300 person sample. Let’s look at the 10 battleground states 267 answers over 10 states.

Pete illustrates his point,

As I mentioned the other day, the Pew Hispanic Center reports that 23.7 million Latinos are eligible to vote in the USA (myself included).

Small sample? Huge margin of error?

Yes. Yes.

And we are to assume that is a significant enough ramdom sample?

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

Paul Mirengoffexposes the slander (emphasis added),

Obama’s factual claims about alleged shortchanging of Hurricane Katrina are false. Obama states:

Down in New Orleans, where they still have not rebuilt twenty months later, there’s a law, federal law — when you get reconstruction money from the federal government — called the Stafford Act. And basically it says, when you get federal money, you gotta give a ten percent match. The local government’s gotta come up with ten percent. Every ten dollars the federal government comes up with, local government’s gotta give a dollar.

Now here’s the thing, when 9-11 happened in New York City, they waived the Stafford Act — said, ‘This is too serious a problem. We can’t expect New York City to rebuild on its own. Forget that dollar you gotta put in. Well, here’s ten dollars.’ And that was the right thing to do. When Hurricane Andrew struck in Florida, people said, ‘Look at this devastation. We don’t expect you to come up with y’own money, here. Here’s the money to rebuild. We’re not gonna wait for you to scratch it together — because you’re part of the American family.’

What’s happening down in New Orleans? Where’s your dollar? Where’s your Stafford Act money? Makes no sense! Tells me that somehow, the people down in New Orleans they don’t care about as much!

But as the Daily Caller points out, by January 2007, six months before Obama’s Hampton speech, the federal government had sent at least $110 billion to areas damaged by Katrina. This was more than five times the money that the Bush administration pledged to New York City after 9/11.

Moreover, says the DC, the federal government did at times waive the Stafford Act during its New Orleans reconstruction efforts. On May 25, 2007, just weeks before Obama’s speech, the Bush administration sent an additional $6.9 billion to Katrina-affected areas with no strings attached.

So here’s what Barack “No Red America, No Blue America” Obama, the great racial unifier, did at Hampton. He charged the U.S. government with racism based on false claims about the response to Hurricane Katrina.

And Obama did not limit his accusation of racism to the federal government. For Obama, white racism is pervasive; it is, to use the central metaphor of the Hampton speech, a bullet that blacks carry in their body from the time of birth. This “bullet” of racism, says Obama, explains the 1992 riots in Los Angeles.

Will The Explosive Daily Caller Video Affect The Campaign? No:

Yes this video is explosive, sadly this video will not affect the campaign because most people will not see the video. Unlike the Romney 47% gaffe, this video will not be picked up by the mainstream news media (outside of Fox) and won’t see this speech every time you turn on the news for the next few days the way you would have if Romney had given such an address.

The media’s complicity gets a drubbing from Ed Driscoll, who sums it in one phrase: “Let’s ignore it in plain sight.”

Bruce McQuain forecasts tonight’s debate questions:

We’ll see how subtle the “moderators” of the debate are going to be about their bias by the questions they ask. Will they focus on the economy, the unfulfilled Obama promises, the disaster his foreign policy has become, ObamaCare and its cost, etc. Or are we going to talk about “lady parts”, what Romney said in 1985 and the evil Bain corporation.

My guess? Not much economy, not much Obama record, lots about Mitt’s past (with the excuse that we know about Obama, but this is an opportunity to introduce America to Romney).

For starters, it would be nice if Obama was asked about the White House Request that Lockheed Martin Drop Plan to Issue Layoff Notices prior to election day. Or about those secret meetings in the White House regarding al-Qaeda’s re-emergence (h/t MOTUS).

Just don’t hold your breath.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

The Audacity of Corruption (h/t Babalu)

I want to talk about this Libyan thing, because we crossed some lines here. It’s not about politics. First of all we’ve had nine day of lies over what happened because they can’t dare say it’s a terrorist attack, and the press won’t push this. Yesterday there was not a single piece in The New York Times over the question of Libya. Twenty American embassies, yesterday, were under attack. None of that is on the national news. None of it is being pressed in the papers. If a President of either party—I don’t care whether it was Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton or George Bush or Ronald Reagan or George H. W. Bush—had a terrorist incident, and got on an airplane after saying something, and flown off to a fundraiser in Las Vegas, they would have been crucified! It would have been—it should have been the equivalent, for Barack Obama, of George Bush’s “flying over Katrina” moment. But nothing was said at all, and nothing will be said.

It is one thing to bias the news, or have a biased view. It is another thing to specifically decide that you will not tell the American people information they have a right to know, and I choose right now, openly, and this is—if I had more time I’d do all the names for it—but The New York Times, The Washington Post, or the most important papers that influence the networks, ABC, NBC, and, to a lesser extent—because CBS has actually been on this story, partly because the President of Libya appeared on [Bob Schieffer’s Face the Nation] and said, on Sunday, while [U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.] Susan Rice was out—the U.N. Ambassador has no portfolio on this matter—lying, said of the Secretary—you know why, notice the Secretary of State wasn’t out there doing this—was on national television, lying and promoting the White House line while the Libyan President, the very same moment, is saying “This is a premeditated attack.” Nobody has asked that question. This morning—take a look at The New York Times this morning, it’s a minor reference. Oh, now we’ve decided that it was a terrorist incident. But this is—that would have changed, that should change the politics.

This is not without accomplices, because the incompetence of the [Mitt] Romney campaign, which I said a week ago is the—my God!—the worst campaign in my lifetime, and the Republican establishment in general’s inability to fight, has allowed these things to happen in part because they don’t do it. But I want to go through two other quick points.

[Mohamed] Morsi and Egypt: The President of Egypt, we find out now, that his whole agenda has been getting the “Blind Sheikh” [Omar Abdel-Rahman], who’s responsible for the bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, out of jail. Prison. I’ve been told specifically, by a member of the intelligence community that the White House and State Department are negotiating that now. They have now come out and denied it, but [Morsi] comes out, that they ordered—he’s the head of the Muslim Brotherhood! The American people know what they think of the Muslim Brotherhood: They are against them eleven to one, all right? And he’s the president of the Muslim Brotherhood, giving $2 billion to United States. He tells them—we had advance warning because they had said they were gonna do this, attack our embassy. The President—after the incident, after 48 hours, Mr. Morsi does nothing and says nothing—picks up the phone, calls him, and demands that they call it off. On Friday—last Friday, a week ago today—there was supposed to be a big demonstration. We thought that would be the big day—no, it disappeared, because Morsi called it off. But no press person has investigated this, just as no press person will go and ask the most obvious questions, when there are really good stories here, good media stories, and good news stories. They are in the tank and this is a frightening thing.

Read every word.

White House officials dispute that the press secretary, Jay Carney, cited the anti-Muhammad video as the cause of the attack in Benghazi. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence now says it, not the White House is responsible for the Obama administration’s initial claims that the deadly assault grew from a spontaneous protest against an anti-Islam video.

The unusual statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence appeared to have two goals: updating the public on the latest findings of the investigation into the assault, and shielding the White House from a political backlash over its original accounts.

“It’s A Mystery Why Romney Can’t Seize The Moment On This” (h/t Hot Air).

Related prior post: Insane: “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman to be sent to Egypt??

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

Andrew McCarthy‘s new book, Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy is out today,

Every human heart does not yearn for freedom. In the Islam of the Middle East, “freedom” means something very nearly the opposite of what the concept connotes to Westerners – it is the freedom that lies in total submission to Allah and His law. That law, sharia, is diametrically opposed to core components of freedom as understood in the West – beginning with the very idea that man is free to make law for himself, irrespective of what Allah has ordained. It is thus delusional to believe, as the West’s Arab Spring fable insists, that the region teems with Jamal al-Madisons holding aloft the lamp of liberty. Do such revolutionary reformers exist? Of course they do . . . but in numbers barely enough to weave a fictional cover story. When push came to shove – and worse – the reformers were overwhelmed, swept away by a tide of Islamic supremacism, the dynamic, consequential mass movement that beckons endless winter.

In it,

…foremost, I did not try to write a history of the “Arab Spring.” Spring Fever is, instead, an attempt to give the reader an alternative way to understand what is happening in the Middle East, an antidote to the delirious “Arab Spring” narrative. Mine is based on understanding that Islam, a culture and civilization distinct from and hostile to the West, is the most significant fact about the region; that far from being a fringe ideology, Islamic supremacism is the dominant interpretation of Islam of the Middle East; and that the most salient precedent for the current revolt, Turkey, is a model for Islamization not democratization.

You can buy the book at Andrew McCarthy‘s website, or through Amazon.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

Venezuela Frees U.S. Ship And Crew After Smuggling Investigation

Venezuelan authorities this morning released the U.S.-flagged cargo ship Ocean Atlas from two weeks of detention on suspicion of arms trafficking.

This comes as a relief to Intermarine, the owner of the ship, as well as for the 15-man all-American crew who had been stuck in limbosince August 29 when Venezuelan customs officials discovered a handful of weapons on board.

Babalu has been following the story.

Meanwhile, the “mercenary” (if he exists) remains in custody. No details have been released other than what Chavez claimed last month.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

By a 54-46 margin, Puerto Rico Voters Reject Constitutional Amendments, To Reduce Legislature Size And Limit Bail In Certain Cases (h/t Puerto Rico eNews),

With just over 86 percent of polling places reporting, officials said 54 percent of the 669,990 votes counted rejected the legislative measure and 46 percent favored it. Fifty-four percent opposed the bail measure and 46 percent supported it.

The politicians in the legislature were frantic about losing their jobs (and those of their families, friends and cronies hired as assistants, consultants, and staff), but here’s the important part,

The referendum’s results mean Puerto Rico remains the only place in the Western Hemisphere where everyone is entitled to bail regardless of the alleged crime.
…
The bail amendment would have granted judges the right to deny bail to those accused of premeditated murder, killing a police officer or killing someone in a public space or during a home invasion, sexual assault or drive-by shooting..

Puerto Rico – already a transport point for drugs to the USA and the EU – thereby remains particularly attractive, not only for its geography, to enterprising drug lords who know they can always get out, intimidate witnesses, kill again, and jump bail even when they kill a cop, if caught.

Related:
13 Alleged Gang Members in Puerto Rico Indicted

U.S. Attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez says the suspects are charged with five murders, two attempted murders and drug trafficking.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

Many (myself included) took it as one of Hugo’s many tall tales, particularly since – after saying that the man is a Hispanic Marine – Hugo added this detail,

The president said the man was carrying a U.S. passport with entrance and exit stamps from countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya

Hugo also now says the man’s passport had a stamp from Jordan, too.

Jordan, Libya, whatever.

Now the latest on the mysterious Marine story is this,

U.S. officials will be allowed access on Wednesday to an American citizen arrested in Venezuela on suspicion of being a mercenary

Clearly implying a plot was afoot less than two months before a presidential election, the socialist leader has said the man was detained entering illegally from Colombia a week ago and sought to destroy some coordinates in a notebook at the time.
…
CONCILIATORY CHAVEZ

Chavez was conciliatory in his latest comments.

“Of course we are going to collaborate with the U.S. government, and I hope they will collaborate with us. The signs we have received, (Foreign Minister) Nicolas (Maduro) tells me, are positive,” he said.

Don’t get too excited over that “conciliatory” thing:

El Nuevo Herald has documents showing that Chavez will send out a militia of 2,000 to “patrol and control” electrical power installations during the upcoming election. Chavez insists that the USA is plotting with the opposition to disrupt the electoral process, after which he says the USA will invade Venezuela.

As if that’s not nuts enough, one of the documents states that the plot

“is organized in the United States of North [sic] America with the support of the Venezuelan extreme right and transnational businesses, and with the technical support of Corpolec (state agency that took over all the electrical suppliers in the country) specialists, both active and retired, which support it.”

And then people wonder why I don’t read fiction anymore.

Far-fetched and downright delusional as all this sounds, it’s worth noting that the militia’s allegiance is to Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution, unlike the Army, whose allegiance is to Venezuela. Chavez, as long-time readers of this blog know, has committed to creating a militia 1,000,000 strong, while embarking in an armaments race with the help of the Russians.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

Ecuador announced Thursday that it was granting political asylum to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who has been holed up for two months in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London awaiting the decision.

The move leaves Mr. Assange with protection from arrest only on Ecuadorean territory, meaning he could only leave the embassy for Ecuador with British cooperation.

Huffing and puffing,

Just before the announcement by Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño at a news conference in the Ecuadorean capital, Quito, President Rafael Correa said on his Twitter account: “No one is going to terrorize us!” The night before, Mr. Patiño said that the British authorities had threatened to force their way into the embassy, to which he responded: “We are not a British colony.”

Reading from a government communiqué, Mr. Patiño said: “The government of Ecuador, faithful to its tradition of protecting those who seek refuge in its territory or in its diplomatic missions, has decided to grant diplomatic asylum to Julian Assange.”

He added, “There are indications to presume that there could be political persecution,” and that Mr. Assange would not get a fair trial in the United States and could face the death penalty there.

Mr. Patiño said he hoped Britain would permit Mr. Assange to leave the embassy in London for Ecuador — a request Britain has rejected, saying it has a binding, legal obligation to extradite Mr. Assange to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over accusations that he sexually assaulted two women.

The British Foreign Office said it was disappointed by the Ecuadorean announcement but remained committed to a negotiated outcome to the standoff. Sweden called the decision “unacceptable” and summoned Ecuador’s ambassador, The Associated Press reported.

Mr. Patiño’s news conference was broadcast live on British television and Mr. Assange watched the announcement as it happened, British news reports said. He told embassy staff members: “It is a significant victory for myself and my people. Things will probably get more stressful now.”

Particularly if it serves a propaganda purpose. The Mex Files is expecting the masses to rise,

While war is the extension of diplomacy by other means, that doesn’t mean a shootin’ war, by any means, but the British are likely to pay a very high price for these intemperate claims: I would expect at a minimum that British Embassies throughout Latin America are going to be besieged and quite a few windows broken, and various Latin American (and probably other) states enacting policies and procedures designed to make life difficult for British passport holders (amazing what Immigration and Customs service types can come up with when they want) and I fully expect British-owned businesses (some of which — like HSBC — are already seen as “dodgy” to use Brit-speak ) might be in a zealous application of existing regulatory and oversight functions.

I’m too cynical to get a rise over Assange. Perhaps that’s why The Mex Files refers to my blog as “The far right-wing Latin American website.”

Speaking of cynicism, No Criminal Case Is Likely in Loss at MF Global, surprise, surprise!

In the most telling indication yet that the MF Global investigation is winding down, federal authorities are seeking to interview the former chief of the firm, Jon S. Corzine, next month, according to the people involved in the case. Authorities hope that Mr. Corzine, who is expected to accept the invitation, will shed light on the actions of other employees at MF Global.

Those developments indicate that federal prosecutors do not expect to file criminal charges against the former New Jersey governor. Mr. Corzine has not yet received assurances that he is free from scrutiny, but two rounds of interviews with former employees and a review of thousands of documents have left prosecutors without a case against him, say the people involved in the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Imagine that: Prosecutors can’t build a case against a guy who simply doesn’t know where $1.2 billion of his clients money is, but who also managed to raise $500,000 for Obama.

Ed Morrisey‘s asking,

Ahem. What kind of “porous risk controls” allowed MF Global to bet money that wasn’t theirs on Euro-zone debt?

Good question.

But, fret not,

Mr. Corzine, in a bid to rebuild his image and engage his passion for trading, is weighing whether to start a hedge fund, according to people with knowledge of his plans.

Can’t wait to see what he calls it!

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog, “The far right-wing Latin American website.”

While campaigning yesterday in Vargas state, Hugo Chávez announced that Venezuela arrested and is interrogating an unnamed American at an undisclosed location,

President Hugo Chavez announced Thursday that security forces arrested a U.S. citizen and suspect he is a mercenary who could be involved in an alleged plot to destabilize Venezuela if the opposition’s candidate loses the upcoming presidential election.

Chavez said the Hispanic man was detained Aug. 4 while crossing into Venezuela from Colombia. The president said the man was carrying a U.S. passport with entrance and exit stamps from countries including Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya as well as a notebook containing geographical coordinates.

The man’s identity was not released. Chavez did not say where he was being interrogated.

Chávez claims that the American was recruited by the opposition to start violent protests if Chávez wins.

Rumor has it that the fictitious American headed to Venezuela after blabbing to Harry Reid about Mitt’s taxes.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

Out of the more than 115 million boys who have passed through the Boy Scouts of America in the last 102 years, approximately two million have become Eagle Scouts, a 2% rate that has climbed to about 4% of all scouts in recent years. Some may have excelled in outdoor challenges and troop leadership, or while earning merit badges for oceanography and entrepreneurship. Yet all have been changed by the experience of what has been come to be called “the Ph.D. of Boyhood.” And these Eagles in turn have changed the face of American culture in ways both obvious and unexpected.

Many went on to notable careers and distinguished service to the country. The list of famous Eagles over the last century includes movie and television stars, six Medal of Honor recipients, Nobel Prize winners, novelists, a number of astronauts (including most Shuttle astronauts), Tuskegee airmen and Japanese-American internees, congressmen, senators and governors, an endless number of corporate CEOs and university presidents, a U.S. president (Gerald Ford), and the first man to walk on the moon (Neil Armstrong). But there are other, perhaps less obvious, Eagles as well: sexologist Alfred Kinsley, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and Washington’s disgraced ex-mayor Marion Barry.

Two summers ago, during the BSA centennial parade in Washington, D.C., the adult Eagle contingent of official marchers featured a diplomat, a journalist, military officers, a bomb-demolition expert, doctors and a department-store Santa Claus. Despite what you might think, America’s Eagles are spread across the political spectrum. They include individuals across all races (scouting was officially integrated from the start) who hold beliefs as diverse as other Americans. What they have in common is that they chose a life of achievement and assumed leadership roles at a very young age.

My son is an Eagle Scout, and has taught me the value of perseverance and being goal-oriented at a young age. It takes a (young) man of character to become an Eagle.

To all Eagle Scouts, who have served for 100 million hours of service to their communities, my heartfelt thanks.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

The Taxman Cometh

If you want to publicly criticize Argentina’s government, make sure all your tax filings are in order.

That was the thinly veiled message President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sent Wednesday near the end of a speech broadcast on all national television and radio stations. Reiterating her standard criticism that media “operations” are depressing Argentinians with gloom-and-doom stories, she derided an article published last Sunday. (She didn’t say this, but the paper that ran it was Clarín, the country’s largest-circulation daily.) In the story, the owner of a real-estate agency, one of its directors and an employee were quoted complaining that recent government measures essentially blocking the sale of foreign currency to citizens had paralyzed their business.

Kirchner then dropped this bit of information: the firm in question hasn’t filed taxes since 2007 and neither has the director quoted in the story, whom she named.

How did she know? She had called up the head of the tax agency to ask, and this, too, she openly revealed on Wednesday’s broadcast.
…
…Kirchner’s statement on Wednesday was different: by saying that she had called the taxman out of supposed concern for the real-estate agency, she unabashedly established cause and effect: you criticize me; I punish you. Was there a better way for her to flex muscle than signal that Argentina’s government agencies are at her beck and call and say so with no shame?

Not cause-and-effect, but coincidental,
Strassel: Obama’s Enemies List—Part II
First an Obama campaign website called out Romney donor Frank Vandersloot. Next the IRS moved to audit him—and so did the Labor Department.

Mr. VanderSloot has since been learning what it means to be on a presidential enemies list. Just 12 days after the attack, the Idahoan found an investigator digging to unearth his divorce records. This bloodhound—a recent employee of Senate Democrats—worked for a for-hire opposition research firm.

Now Mr. VanderSloot has been targeted by the federal government. In a letter dated June 21, he was informed that his tax records had been “selected for examination” by the Internal Revenue Service. The audit also encompasses Mr. VanderSloot’s wife, and not one, but two years of past filings (2008 and 2009).

Mr. VanderSloot, who is 63 and has been working since his teens, says neither he nor his accountants recall his being subject to a federal tax audit before. He was once required to send documents on a line item inquiry into his charitable donations, which resulted in no changes to his taxes. But nothing more—that is until now, shortly after he wrote a big check to a Romney-supporting Super PAC.

Two weeks after receiving the IRS letter, Mr. VanderSloot received another—this one from the Department of Labor. He was informed it would be doing an audit of workers he employs on his Idaho-based cattle ranch under the federal visa program for temporary agriculture workers.
…
Perhaps all this is coincidence. Perhaps something in Mr. VanderSloot’s finances or on his ranch raised a flag. Americans want to believe the federal government performs its duties without fear or favor.

Only in this case, Americans can have no such confidence. Did Mr. Obama pick up the phone and order the screws put to Mr. VanderSloot? Or—more likely—did a pro-Obama appointee or political hire or career staffer see that the boss had an issue with this donor, and decide to do the president an unasked-for election favor? Or did he or she simply think this was a duty, given that the president had declared Mr. VanderSloot and fellow donors “less than reputable”?

As a commenter in the latter article put it,

Here is the problem. Despite living an exemplary life and keeping all of your affairs in order and legal to the best of your abilities, because the laws are so outrageously complex and of such breadth and volume that it is impossible to know them and thus adhere to them, everyone who has any arrangement beyond the most simple can likely be found, upon thorough investigation, to be in violation of something. For this reason, getting audited can be problematic, despite honest attempts to stay compliant. Thus, people rightly fear being singled out and becoming an audit target.

Criticisms of “what have you to hide?” are a simpleton’s response to such fears. Nowadays, managing a business or any enterprise is fraught with big and little gotchas in every conceivable corner.

Not a good trend.

Not good at all.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

I kid you not,
USDA uses Spanish soap operas to push food stamps among non-citizens, citizens [AUDIO]

Each novela, comprising a 10-part series called “PARQUE ALEGRIA,” or “HOPE PARK,” presents a semi-dramatic scenario involving characters convincing others to get on food stamps, or explaining how much healthier it is to be on food stamps.

Actually, alegría means glee, but, all the same, you get the annoying male voice asking at the end, “Will Claudia convince Ramon to apply for SNAP?”, as if you cared,

(For translation, follow the link.)

And now for the irritating part,

In addition to the Spanish-language outreach, the USDA is also pushing to get non-citizens enrolled in the program. The radio novelas overcome one of the hurdles the agency has identified as hampering participation: “lack of knowledge” about the program.

The non-citizens who have children born in the USA can get food stamps. What a way to integrate into America.

Culture of dependence: the new American way.

Obscene.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

El Nuevo Herald reports that Hugo Chávez is ceding control over Venezuela’s oil to China, (link in Spanish) Hugo Chávez cede a China el control del petróleo.

The article states that El Nuevo Herald has obtained documents showing that Venezuela’s increasingly dependent on China’s financing and direct investments to the tune of US$80 billion. In exchange, China is playing a greater part on Venezuela’s strategic decision making regarding especially the oil-producing Orinoco area.

The documents obtained by El Nuevo Herald detail a series of negotiations earlier this year between the Venezuelan government, China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC), and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC) for 10% on Petropiar, a joint venture with assets previously expropriated from ConocoPhillips. ConocoPhillips is suing Venezuela in international courts for compensation over these assets.

According to the documents, the purpose of the venture is

“To create a joint venture in China for the special purpose of entering the Asian markets and obtain investments for the Orinoco oil belt.”

In the article, Evan Ellis of the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies points out that, as this is clearly a risky venture, China is taking control of how the money will be spent, introducing review and monitoring mechanisms, and deciding how the revenues will be distributed and to what accounts.

Hence, what we’re seeing here is Chávez playing a game of 3-card monte: Stealing from ConocoPhillips, taking from the Chinese, and exchanging hard assets for entering the ever-risky Chinese stock market…with China in charge.

Related business news: China State Grid Signs Contract With Venezuela

State-owned China State Grid Corp., the country’s largest grid operator and power distributor, said it signed a $1.31 billion power-transmission agreement with Venezuela’s National Electric Corp.

The agreement, signed last week, would create the largest Chinese power-transmission project in Venezuela by value and is State Grid’s first overseas grid construction contract, it said on its website.

The contract includes building a power-transmission facility in Caracas and nearby regions that will significantly boost Venezuela’s transmission capacity, it said.

In other Chávez news, he’s declared himself cancer-free, again.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog. Please link to this post if you quote me.

First, The Tale of Sir Robin:

And now, the news story, via Jawa:

Border Patrol union blasts Homeland Security instructions to ‘run away’ and ‘hide’ from gunmen

Border Patrol agents in Arizona are blasting their bosses for telling them, along with all other Department of Homeland Security employees, to run and hide if they encounter an “active shooter.”
It’s one thing to tell civilian employees to cower under a desk if a gunman starts spraying fire in a confined area, say members of Tucson Local 2544/National Border Patrol Council, but to give armed law enforcement professionals the same advice is downright insulting. The instructions from DHS come in the form of pamphlets and a mandatory computer tutorial.

Specifically,

Main Points of the “Active Shooter” training course
Evacuate: If there is an accessible escape path, attempt to evacuate the premises.
Hide out: If evacuation is not possible, find a place to hide where the active shooter is less likely to find you.
Take action: As a last resort, and only when your life is in imminent danger, attempt to disrupt and/or incapacitate the active shooter.

Say again? “Attempt to disrupt and/or incapacitate the active shooter”? Whatever happened to shoot to kill?

What’s next? Holler at them, “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of eldel berries”?

Jawa also points out,

OT kinda but not considering the current head of DHS and her prior position as Gov of Arizona: Obama Contributor, Who Helped Enact Assault-Weapons Ban, Ran ‘Fast and Furious’

In 2003, when Napolitano became governor, Burke became her chief of staff. He stayed in that job until the fall of 2008, when he left to help Democratic political campaigns, including then-Sen. Obama’s presidential campaign

Read it all.

We’re in the best of hands.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

El Nuevo Herald has obtained a copy of a contract (link in Spanish) signed in 2010 by Asdrúbal Chávez, Hugo Chávez cousin, by which the Venezuelan government contracted Iranian Offshore Engineering & Construction Company (IOEC) to enlarge the Astinave shipbuilding facility in the state Falcón which had previously been seized by Chávez’s government. (My translation: if you use it, please credit me and link to this post)

Astinave is located in Venezuela’s geographic point nearest to the USA and the Panama Canal, while the peninsula was identified by Western intelligence sources quoted in two reports by German daily Die Welt as the location chosen by Iran to locate some of its medium-range missiles.

According to Venezuelan military sources, Iran is using Astinave to unload its container ships.

Another report states that (emphasis added)

Venezuela has transferred at least one F-16 fighter to Iran in an attempt to help it calibrate its air defenses, in preparation for a possible Israeli or U.S. strike on its nuclear facilities, reports Spanish newspaper ABC.

ABC, one of the three largest Spanish dailies and aligned with the ruling rightist party, wrote that the transfer, in 2006, was supervised by one of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez’s closest aides. The paper’s Washington correspondent, Emili J. Blasco, said the story was based on both sources in Venezuela’s air force and classified documents, following a tip- off by a non-Western intelligence agency.

Specifically,

At least one F-16 was transferred to Iran in 2006. According to the report, the jet was disassembled and packed in several sealed and unmarked wooden containers. These were loaded on a Boeing 707 Venezuelan air force plane that took off from the El Libertador Air Base, stopping in Brazil and Algeria before landing in Tehran, where it was reassembled. Venezuelan pilots instructed Iranian pilots and technicians as to the jet’s capabilities.

According to the news report, the F-16 was given to Iran so it could test its antiaircraft radar systems and become familiar with its capabilities, in preparation for a possible strike.

The trial flights in Iran were used to calibrate the Iranian air defense systems. Iranian officers also studied the speed of the F-16 on the radar screens.

We all know Chávez is a buffoon, but, as Roger Kimball said, the Ridiculous Is no Laughing Matter

here’s the thing to remember. We often assume that someone who is ridiculously contemptible is therefore not dangerous. History shows that, on the contrary, the ridiculous can easily cohabit with the malevolent.

The photo above was taken during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Caracas last week.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

As Carlos Eire put it, the impeachment is good news from Latin America, for a change.

The Diplomad has more,

Lugo. I have met him on three occasions, once in Paraguay and twice in Washington. How do I put this diplomatically and delicately? He is certifiably insane. He is the stuff of novels and comedy movies. A Catholic bishop gone mad who promotes a weird blend of populism, sixteenth century anti-Protestant dogma, a dash of Marxism, some anti-US rhetoric, and some other odds and ends. He had become a follower of Venezuela’s ailing Hugo Chavez and Ecuador’s increasingly unstable Rafael Correa, and at the OAS and the UN, Paraguay took on the anti-US rhetoric of his ALBA masters. As a priest, he had several children, some of whom he officially acknowledged as his. Paraguayans frequently referred to Lugo as “the father of our country.”

Lugo used his office to promote land seizures and, frankly, violence against landowners by the poor. For him, the law was a flexible, plastic, pliable material which could be bent, pulled, and twisted into whatever form he saw fit. He encouraged violence, and he got it; dead cops and dead poor people. The Paraguayan congress had enough of the violence and wackiness, impeached and convicted him in rapid fire order, and swore in Vice President Federico Franco. President Franco will hold the office until national elections in 2013. The new chief executive has run into a firestorm of criticism from around the region, especially the Chavez controlled ALBA nations, but others as well. Lots of gnashing of teeth and rending over garments over the supposed lack of due process, with some alleging the Congressional action is tantamount to a coup a la Honduras.

Third, I am no Paraguayan constitutional expert, but any process that involves open voting by elected officials, and does not involve firing squads or electrodes to the genitals, is a dramatic improvement over what has happened before in Latin America and Paraguay. To have your process criticized as undemocratic by the likes of Castro and Chavez is no shame.

Fourth, this is an opportunity for the US to begin to undermine ALBA influence and shore up a rocky democratic regime. The worst thing we can is criticize, criticize, criticize, and do what we did in Honduras–i.e., let Venezuela take the lead. The US should act like a democratic superpower and not let ourselves get steamrolled by loud Latin American executives who do not like to see fellow chief executives removed, even by democratic means.

Lugo’s crying coup, while new president Federico Franco explained the impeachment,

The transition took place with little unrest, while the usual Latin American lefties aren’t happy.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog. Hat tip: Phineas.

Brazilian media is reporting that ailing Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will make an emergency trip to Brazil after allegedly suffering intestinal burns during his radiation treatment in Cuba.
Chávez, who in June of last year revealed that Cuban doctors had removed a cancerous tumor from his abdominal region, has been going back-and-forth from the island nation for treatment. The Associated Press reported earlier on Thursday that the Venezuelan leader had returned to his country on Wednesday night from radiation treatment in Cuba.

He may be headed to the hospital Sirio e Libanês in Sao Paulo, where Dilma Rouseff, Lula, and Paraguay’s Fernando Lugo have been treated for cancer.

Brazilian journalist Merval Pereira says that the emergency trip is being spun by the Venezuelan government as a visit to Lula. Pereira has spoken to doctors at the hospital who so far have made no preparations for Chavez’s arrival, but allow that Chavez could be admitted for tests. Pereira also says that there is a big fight going on between chavistas as to whether Chavez should travel or not, due to security and secrecy issues.

Just yesterday Chavez was begging God to let him live longer in front of a very small audience (my translation. If you use it, please credit me and link to this posts)

“Dame tu corona, Cristo. Dámela que yo sangro, dame tu cruz, cien cruces, que yo la llevo, pero dame vida. No me lleves todavía, dame tus espinas, dame tu sangre, que yo estoy dispuesto a llevarla pero con vida, Cristo, mi señor. Amén.”

Give me your crown, Christ. Give it to me as I bleed, a hundred crosses, that I carry it, but give me life. Don’t take me away yet, give me your thorns, give me your blood, that I am willing to carry it, but with life, Christ, my lord. Amen.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

The Blaze has screenshots from The Telegraph (UK) (nothing to see now!), the HuffPo (which leads to the main website, not the story), and Global Grind (which takes you to Google). The Tatler has even more instances of the disappeared story. Even the Freepers pulled the story.

Putting aside the State Department warnings to Americans planning to travel in Mexico, and the questions of whether a 13-yr old should be going on Spring Break without her parents, whether we the taxpayers should be paying for 40 people to go on that trip, or whatever else you want to gripe about, is the real issue, as Brian Doherty put it,

this unfolding incident…seems to indicate the White House can get a wide range of sites to take down stories, even if it is just with gentle persuasion or appeals to some higher standard. And that is highly unnerving.

Meanwhile, the Mexicans are coping with cars exploding in front of newspaper offices in Tamaulipas (a state on the US-Mex border) in the north, and 12 policemen ambushed and killed when investigating the beheadings of 12 people in Guerrero, in the south.

Makes you wonder why Malia and her friends couldn’t be told to go to Fort Lauderdale like everybody else.

UPDATE:
Strong, long quake shakes Mexico City

A strong, long earthquake with an epicenter in Guerrero state shook central southern Mexico today, swaying buildings in Mexico City and sending frightened workers and residents into the streets.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially set the intensity at 7.9 and said the epicenter was 11 miles underground. Mexico’s National Seismological Survey said the temblor had an epicenter southwest of Ometepec.

If Malia’s party is not out of Mexico yet, us taxpayers will also be paying extra for the emergency evacuation.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

Venezuela had some ships built by Cuba, that world-class shipping industry giant, and the first ship arrived today. Here’s some video from a Spanish-language newsreel for you maritime-knowledgeable readers to appraise the ship,

Looks very modest to me, particularly when you bear in mind that the ship is to be used “for social and military” operations.

Venezuela is the #1 point of departure for illegal drugs. Rumors abound in Venezuela as to what Cuba will do if Chavez dies or loses the upcoming election. New Cuban ships arriving in Caracas are the least of the Venezuelans concerns.

Speaking of Chavez, after promising that he’d return from Cuba after having another cancer surgery, he just tweeted saying he’s aboard the plane bringing him back to Venezuela. The Venezuelan news website Noticias 24 has been running ads all week of Chavez saying “we will live and we will triumph”.

Hugo spent a full three weeks availing himself of that famous “free” Cuban health care, to the tune of an estimated $200,000 to $400,000 per day for his costs and that of his 240-people team.

Chavez and his cronies in Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua may be aiding Iran bypass economic sanctions, particularly since

The fact that Ecuador uses the U.S dollar as its currency means that once the money gets into the country it is automatically injected into the economy. Ecuador’s dollarization plus the SUCRE mechanism together represents a scheme that facilitates money-laundering operations in the region. Considering that Iran and Venezuela support terrorism, that high Venezuelan officials have been designated as “Drug Kingpins” by the United States, that Ecuador has become a haven for organized crime, there is reason to believe that those countries are using Ecuador to launder money from illicit activities such as narcotics trafficking, kidnapping and terrorism.

In other parts of South America, not only is the Argentinian government prosecuting economists who analyze the real inflation rate (not to be confused with the official inflation rate), they are now pulling the plug on live TV interviews on the subject. In the meantime, Argentina will sue any companies involved in oil exploration off the Falkland Islands in an attempt to pressure Great Britain into sovereignty talks.

Where is Margaret Thatcher when we need her?

Closer to home, Mitt Romney is campaigning in Puerto Rico, and so is Rick Santorum. Since PR has a population of more than 4 million people, the 23 delegates will increase Mitt’s lead.

Forget about what Santorum said regarding English and Puerto Rico; the guy who has his eyes on the real issue is not running:
Marco Rubio aced it,

“What’s on people’s minds is what’s on your mind and my mind and everybody else’s mind: How am I going to provide for my family?”

Here’s Marco,

Marco, unlike the current contenders, is the one who has it right.

The Galway Advertiser understands that City Hall’s arts officer James Harrold will commission a scale model of the proposed monument to be made. This will then be presented to the Galway City Council’s Working Group on Public Arts for consideration, and later city manager Joe O’Neill for final approval. The approval of city councillors may also need to be sought.

The idea to erect a monument to Che Guevara comes from a proposal made by Labour councillor Billy Cameron, an ardent admirer of the revolutionary, that a monument be erected in Galway and that the project be undertaken in conjunction with the Cuban and Argentinean embassies to Ireland.

The proposed monument has been designed by Simon McGuinness and it is understood that it will feature the iconic image of Che created by the Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick, commonly seen on posters and T-shirts.

Both men were in Galway recently to inspect proposed sites for the location of the Che monument. While no definite site has been chosen it is likely that the Salthill Promenade, possibly around the area of the Atlantaquaria, will be its location.

There should be no room in a beautiful city like Galway, in a free country like Ireland, to honor a mass murdering sociopathic racist Communist whose aim in life was to destroy the very freedoms and rights the Irish have struggled so hard to attain throughout their history. To build this monument, with the aim of making it a tourist attraction, is an insult to the very ideals of the Irish nation and the city of Galway.

Since no definite site has been chosen, it’s still time to stop it.

Here is the Galway City website. You can contact Billy Cameron at bcameron@eircom.net. Please make sure to be polite and civil when you contact them.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

(h/t Gates of Vienna)

Most readers probably consider this an abstraction of sorts, things happening far away that have no bearing in their lives.

In fact, this is a matter of national security important to the USA. Mitchell Silber, director of intelligence analysis for the New York City Police Department, explains why in today’s Wall Street Journal,
The Iranian Threat to New York City
As the West’s conflict with Iran over its nuclear program heats up, New York City—with its large Jewish population—becomes an increasingly attractive target.

Iran has a proven record of using its official presence in a foreign city to coordinate attacks, which are then carried out by Hezbollah agents from abroad, often leveraging the local community—whether wittingly or not—as facilitators. Most notable are the 1992 and 1994 bombings of Israeli and Jewish targets in Argentina, which killed 29 and 85 people, respectively. The New York City Police Department, where I work as director of Intelligence Analysis, sent a team to Argentina to study the modus operandi of those attacks and to meet with Argentine security officials who worked the investigations. Coupled with open source information, this is what the NYPD learned:

Iranian agents were sent to Argentina years before the attacks, where they integrated into society and became Argentine nationals. Mohsen Rabbani is believed to have been in charge of coordinating the 1994 attack and is subject to an Interpol arrest warrant for his involvement. He first came to Argentina in 1983, where he subsequently became the main imam at At-Tauhid, an Iranian-funded mosque in Buenos Aires.

After traveling to Iran in August 1993 to participate in a meeting that allegedly gave the planned attack the green light, Mr. Rabbani returned to Argentina as a cultural attaché to the Iranian Embassy, conveniently providing him diplomatic immunity. Then, Hezbollah agents from abroad received logistical support from members of the local Lebanese-Shiite community and the Iranian Embassy to carry out the attack.

The Argentine attacks were by no means isolated incidents. Hezbollah has been tied to failed attacks in 2009 against Israeli and Jewish interests in Azerbaijan, Egypt and Turkey. Last month, Thai officials arrested a suspected Hezbollah militant for possibly planning attacks there or perhaps facilitating the movement of weapons through Bangkok.

In the New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania area,

Hezbollah and its supporters have a presence in New York and the surrounding area as well. In 2008, two Staten Island men pleaded guilty to providing material support to Hezbollah. Just down the road in Philadelphia, 26 people—including a former Brooklyn resident—were indicted in federal court in 2009 for conspiring to provide material support to the terrorist group.

Lebanese-linked businesses in the tri-state area and elsewhere have been implicated in a massive money-laundering scheme benefiting Hezbollah. This scheme was revealed in a civil suit filed against several Lebanese financial institutions last December by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Meanwhile, at least 18 other Hezbollah-related cases have been brought in federal courts across the United States since 2000.

Among them, Moussa Ali Hamdan, a naturalized US citizen who lived in Brooklyn, worked in New Jersey, and is wanted in Philadelphia for exporting stolen cars to Lebanon to finance terror organizations there.

And, for what it’s worth, Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi is wanted by Interpol for being behind the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

With nearly 50 percent of voter support and an 18-point lead over his nearest challenger in the most recent poll, Ortega could end up with a mandate that would not only legitimize his re-election but allow him to make constitutional changes guaranteeing perpetual re-election.

Ortega’s well on his way – readers of my blog will remember that last year he insisted that the Nicaraguan Supreme Court declare term limits unconstitutional.

Over in Guatemala, a Retired general sweeps to power in Guatemala election

A retired right-wing general promising a crackdown on violent crime won Guatemala’s presidential election on Sunday and will be the first military man to take power since democracy was restored in 1986.

Otto Perez had 54.2 percent support with results in from 98 percent of polling stations while his rival, wealthy businessman Manuel Baldizon, trailed with 45.8 percent.

Guatemala’s electoral tribunal declared Perez the winner late on Sunday, and his supporters began celebrating in the streets.

It was a clear move to the right for Central America’s largest economy and came after leftist President Alvaro Colom failed to contain violent crime or protect the country from Mexican drug cartels using it as a key smuggling route.

The LA Times writes on how the Elections in Nicaragua, Guatemala underscore threats to democracy.

UPDATE,
U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Condemns Ortega’s Manipulation of Election, Democratic Process in Nicaragua

“Sunday’s so-called ‘election’ in Nicaragua was a complete sham. Daniel Ortega made sure of it.

“According to the Nicaraguan constitution, Ortega was not eligible to run for another term as President. But he forced his way onto the ballot through a corrupt scheme that trampled over Nicaraguan constitutional mandates.

“And once he forced his way onto the ballot, Ortega pulled out more tricks to make sure that he would win. He denied countless Nicaraguans the right to vote in order to stack the deck in his favor. He has clearly learned from his dictatorial buddies in the region, like Chavez, who is an expert at trampling democracy.

“Last month, I sent a letter to the Department of State urging the Administration to stand up to Ortega’s scheme to cling to power. The U.S. and other responsible nations cannot recognize the outcome of this stolen election.”

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

An Ox came down to a reedy pool to drink. As he splashed heavily into the water, he crushed a young Frog into the mud. The old Frog soon missed the little one and asked his brothers and sisters what had become of him.
“A great big monster,” said one of them, “stepped on little brother with one of his huge feet!”

“Big, was he!” said the old Frog, puffing herself up. “Was he as big as this?”

“Oh, much bigger!” they cried.

The Frog puffed up still more.

“He could not have been bigger than this,” she said. But the little Frogs all declared that the monster was much, much bigger and the old Frog kept puffing herself out more and more until, all at once, she burst.

Back to the headline, Hugo Chávez Says His Cancer Is Gone, Simón Romero, writes,

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela declared on Thursday that he had beaten cancer, less than five months after he stunned Venezuelans by revealing that he had undergone emergency surgery to remove a tumor while in seclusion in Cuba.

This is not the first time he’s said that. Back in July he was saying exactly the same thing; now he continues to assert,

“No abnormal cellular activity exists,” said Mr. Chávez in comments broadcast on state media while on a visit to western Venezuela, where he was preparing to visit a Roman Catholic shrine. “I’ve begun to exit the cave,” said the president, dressed in a green military uniform.

Despite Mr. Chávez’s announcement, which he made after a brief trip to Cuba for a checkup, mystery still shrouds his condition.

Clearly, Hugo is sick – no doubt about it. Whatever condition he has is manifesting itself in many clear ways that he can not hide. Obviously it is a severe medical condition. Rumors have been flying on the nature of the illness(es), the most recent include kidney failure and medullary aplasia.

Is it cancer?

He‘s the one who’s saying it’s cancer, he‘s the one saying he’s cancer-free. However, as I pointed out in the past, “cancer” is a good smoke screen (there are some 200 types of cancers), elicits compassion – we all have family/friends who have been devastated by it – and explains a multitude of therapies and absences (and trips to Cuba).

Ask yourselves, with the decades-long propaganda on “Cuba’s excellent health care”, if Cuban doctors had actually cured Chávez’s cancer, wouldn’t both regimes (Cuba’s and Venezuela’s) be parading a team of oncologists on innumerable press conferences confirming this “cure”?

He has never publicly revealed what type of cancer afflicted him. Altogether, Mr. Chávez, 57, underwent four chemotherapy treatments, including three in Cuba and one in Venezuela, according to the government.

Physically, he still looked like a changed man on Thursday, appearing bloated and with a green military cap covering a bald head. Spiritually, Mr. Chávez also seems to have acquired a more religious air. “I’m more Christian every day,” he said Thursday. “Socialism is the road to Christ.”

Hugo must think that having close ties to Iran and moving Venezuela’s gold to Caracas may bring him closer to heaven, then. Hugo also spent some time beating up on the rich and mangling Biblical parables (video in Spanish)

Salvador Navarrete is the only physician who has dared to speak about Chávez’s medical condition (emphasis added),

a prominent Venezuelan doctor who describes himself as the president’s former personal surgeon, said this week that Mr. Chávez had less than two years to live, attributing his illness to a “very aggressive” tumor in the pelvic area.

Dr. Navarrete, a former militant in Mr. Chávez’s political movement, said he drew his conclusions from recent discussions with Mr. Chávez’s family.

It’s not clear if Navarrete has treated Chávez during this “cancer” occurrence – and, from a public-relations point of view, Navarrete’s statement that Chávez has been treated for bipolar disorder may be more damaging than a “cancer” (yet another reason for Chávez to bang the “cancer” drum loudly).

What is clear is that Navarrete has had to leave, along with his family, Venezuela suddenly (apparently going to Mexico) because of the fallout. Romero reports,

agents from the Sebin, Mr. Chávez’s secret intelligence police, had appeared at Dr. Navarrete’s office this week to question him.

Navarrete’s private practice and his teaching position are ended.

The moral from the fable at the start of this post? Take everything coming out from Chávez’s mouth as so much puffery, particularly when it comes to his health.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

Characteristically, Hugo Chavez is propagandizing against the USA, siding with the Occupy Wall Street protestors while calling Mitt Romney “crazy man” and President Obama “a big fraud”;
Chavez slams “horrible repression” of U.S. protests

Socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez condemned on Saturday the “horrible repression” of anti-Wall Street protesters and termed a Republican presidential candidate “crazy” for his criticism of Cuba and Venezuela.

Although still convalescing from cancer surgery in June followed by four rounds of chemotherapy, the 57-year-old Venezuelan president is quickly returning to the tough rhetoric and strong views that have made him famous worldwide.

Not surprisingly, Chavez expressed solidarity with American activists who have been staging rallies and marches against what they view as corporate greed by Wall Street.
…
“This movement of popular outrage is expanding to 10 cities and the repression is horrible, I don’t know how many are in prison now,” Chavez said in comments at a political meeting in his Caracas presidential palace shown on state TV.

Hugo looooves the filthy hippies, unlike the workers whose businesses are in the line of feces, fire:

Over at the NYT, Jennifer Preston writes that Protest Spurs Online Dialogue on Inequity. Inequity, as in, lazy freeloading dirty hypocrites demanding $20-per-hour pay for doing nothing, while defecating on police cars, and tearing down sinks and vandalizing honest businesses struggling to stay viable in this economy?

Or perhaps the hundreds of companies suing Chavez for nationalizing their businesses in Venezuela?

No, I didn’t think so.

More like iniquity, from the Grey Lady.

Help! I’m being repressed!

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

Christie suspended the film tax credit program in 2010 to close a budget deficit, but the 2009 season still qualified for the credit.

“I have no interest in policing the content of such projects,” Christie said in a statement. “However, as chief executive I am duty-bound to ensure that taxpayers are not footing a $420,000 bill for a project which does nothing more than perpetuate misconceptions about the State and its citizens.”

To those of you who don’t live in New Jersey, please be advised that orange-dyed overexposed (in every meaning of the word) louts are the exception, not the rule, to the Garden State’s inhabitants.

Jersey Shore is awful enough that companies pay the orange-dyed “stars” not to use their products:

The Situation doesn’t usually require a lot of motivation to lose the shirt. But Abercrombie & Fitch wants him to go one further — the company has offered to pay “Jersey Shore” cast members to stop wearing clothes carrying their brand.

The preppy teen retailer said Tuesday it would pay a “substantial payment” to Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino or any cast member who stops wearing its clothing on the popular MTV reality show because the series is “contrary to the aspirational nature of the brand.”

Coach didn’t like Snooki carrying their purse to the bar, either.

Thank you, Governor Christie for ending the $420,000 Jersey Shore tax break.

And, A&F, you can pay me to not wear your clothes any time, too.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

Social media users who denounce drug cartel activities along the Mexican border received a brutal warning this week: Two mangled bodies hanging like cuts of meat from a pedestrian bridge.

A woman was hogtied and disemboweled, her intestines protruding from three deep cuts on her abdomen. Attackers left her topless, dangling by her feet and hands from a bridge in the border city of Nuevo Laredo. A bloodied man next to her was hanging by his hands, his right shoulder severed so deeply the bone was visible.

Signs left near the bodies declared the pair, both apparently in their early 20s, were killed for posting denouncements of drug cartel activities on a social network.

“This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet,” one sign said. “You better (expletive) pay attention. I’m about to get you.”
The gruesome scene sent a chilling message at a time when online posts have become some of the loudest voices reporting violence in Mexico. In some parts of the country, threats from cartels have silenced traditional media. Sometimes even local authorities fear speaking out.

Mashable reports that Denuncia ciudadana was included in the threat. Unlike Frontera al rojo vivo and Blog del narco, Denuncia ciudadana is an official site of the Mexican government’s Prosecutor’s office.

Video below the fold, since it’s gruesome,

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

Since 2007, the Cuban government has prohibited reporting by foreign correspondents from the Chicago Tribune, the BBC and El Universal in México.

This year, the Communist regime has denounced the Wall Street Journal, removed CNN En Español from hotel cable service, and accused Reuters of arranging meeting between spies in the island.

In addition to pulling Vicent’s creds, this week Cuba denied Agence France Press’ correspondent, Juan Castro Olivera, a visa,

Authorities have been especially sensitive about stories on Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a political prisoner who died in 2009 after a hunger strike, and Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, a dissident who died after an alleged police beating in May, said the journalists.

Foreign journalists in Havana have reported virtually nothing on the recent spate of complaints by dissidents in eastern Cuba of violent crackdowns by pro-government mobs and security agents against opposition activists.

CPI officials also have tightened some of the regulations on correspondents, such as those governing the purchases of cars and equipment such as air conditioners, according to the journalists, who all requested anonymity to avoid government retaliations.

The Communist regime knows all these news agencies are on Fidel’s death watch. The agencies want to have a correspondent on the island when Fidel’s death is finally announced. Denying an entry visa is a gesture, but revoking Vicent’s creds after twenty years telegraphs the message “You better toe the line, or you’ll miss out on The Big Story.”

Related:
The reforms of the Castro dictatorship in numbers: 243 & 2,221 & 1,091

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

President Hugo Chávez and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pledged to strengthen political and economic cooperation after they convened a meeting of delegates of both countries that will be held in September in Caracas, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said Tuesday in a statement.

In a telephone conversation, the two Heads of State welcomed the progress of bilateral cooperation and “agreed to convene the 7th meeting of the bilateral joint committee (…) in order to broaden and deepen the complementation for the independence and welfare of people,” said the text released by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, as quoted by AFP.

A’jad is scheduled to be in New York on September 11.

Hugo’s back in Caracas, from his latest round of Cuban chemo, and looking bloated,

Meanwhile, Venezuela Plans to Move Reserve Funds (emphasis added)

Venezuela plans to transfer billions of dollars in cash reserves from abroad to banks in Russia, China and Brazil and tons of gold from European banks to its central bank vaults, according to documents reviewed Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal.

The planned moves would include transferring $6.3 billion in cash reserves, most of which Venezuela now keeps in banks such as the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, and Barclays Bank in London to unnamed Russian, Chinese and Brazilian banks, one document said.

Venezuela also plans to move 211 tons of gold it keeps abroad and values at $11 billion to the vaults of the Venezuelan Central Bank in Caracas where the government keeps its remaining 154 tons of bullion, the document says.

Interestingly,

Venezuela is unusual among countries of its kind in holding so much gold, with the 13th largest gold reserves in the world, according to the World Gold Council (most of the countries ahead of it are in the G10). But this has certainly served Venezuela well: the consistent rise in gold prices has effectively papered over a fall in its reserves this year, despite high oil prices.
Moreover, for Venezuela, whose government rather remarkably seems to be capable of “losing” $29bn, $5bn is small change.

Why the move?

Analysts said the planned move made little economic or financial sense, since Venezuela would be taking its money out of secure banks in safe countries and putting it in countries that are not as safe and perhaps in currencies such as the Chinese yuan or the Russian ruble, which are not reserve currencies. “It’s a big risk,” said José Guerra, a former official at Venezuela’s central bank. Mr. Guerra said he also had heard about the documents whose authenticity was confirmed to him by Central Bank officials.

Could be that Hugo’s getting more desperate as the chemo continues,

Neither Mr. Chávez’s type of cancer nor Mr. Chávez’s prognosis has been made public. Moving the reserves may signal that Mr. Chávez and his associates could be preparing some drastic political moves—such as canceling elections—that could incur international condemnation and perhaps trigger sanctions.

Therefore – since he knows he’s running out of time, he needs the gold and cash right now.

Miguel Octavio is unfazed. One of his commenters speculates,

Is it possible that they are trying to get these reserves into a place where the new government can’t get at them?

Everything is possible.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

Can the administration’s Latino strategy work? Judging from the response from Latinos, I don’t think so. His trip to Puerto Rico was criticized for being too short and empty of substance. The most recent Gallup Poll shows Latino support for Obama plummeting to an average of 52 percent for June, down from 74 percent at the beginning of his term.
…
Latinos surely remember that President George W. Bush sent two top Cabinet members to the Hill in ’07 to negotiate an immigration reform plan with the Democratic leadership, not knowing if he had the necessary votes to pass it. Though Bush failed, they recognize he showed presidential leadership in trying to find a solution to this complex problem. Why can’t Obama do the same now?

With Puerto Rican voters in Florida, the strategy most likely won’t work either. They don’t care as much about immigration as other Latino groups. But like most Americans, Latinos are frustrated with the administration’s economic policies. They see unemployment stuck at about 9 percent, with Latino unemployment considerably higher, at roughly 12 percent. It’s going to take more than a trip to Puerto Rico to get their vote.

Obama had his chance. He raised the hopes of Latinos and then didn’t deliver.

This doesn’t mean that the majority of Latinos are going to vote Republican. But it does mean that many will consider voting for the Republican candidate. If the GOP nominee gets at least 40 percent of the Latino vote — and can win states like Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico — Obama could possibly be defeated in 2012.

Is there such a thing as a “Latino vote”, when you have millions of people from two dozen countries, many languages, every social/educational/cultural background, and every ethnicity known to mankind?

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

Pablo Kleinman, commenting on Facebook, linked to his 2007 article, ¿De quién son las Malvinas? (Whose Falklands?) (link in Spanish), which sheds light on the islands’ background. Kleinman wrote the article on the 25th anniversary of the Falklands war. I translated it, so please, if you use any of this translation, link to this post and credit me (emphasis added):

Most Argentinians do not know today, and did not know in 1982, that the Argentinian colonization of the islands is little more than fiction, and when it took place it lasted barely longer than the Argentinian dictatorship than started the 1982 war. The fact that the Falklands are part of the American continental platform, or that are 500 kilometers away from the Argentinian coastline, two of the most used rationalizations when trying to claim Argentinian sovereignty over them, lacks weight in International Law.

During the lengthiest period of time when any Argentinian inhabited the Falklands, between 1826 and 1833, there never was any government representation in the islands. There was a governor only between 1829 and 1831; back then there were only some 40 people, workers at a fishery owned by the “governor”, a French entrepreneur from Hamburg named Louis Vernet.

Vernet had been ceded Soledad Island (East Falkland) for commercial exploitation as payment for a debt the Buenos Aires Government owed him. Aside from Vernet’s worker, among which Argentinians were a minority, a few gauchos and adventurers lived in the Falklands.

Vernet’s daughter was the only person born in the Falklands during that precarious settlement. “Precarious” since there was no town hall, no churches, nor any civil society of any type. Aside from the couple of years of the Frenchman’s enterprise, there was nothing more than a pirate encampment.

In 1833 the Falklands had some 20 inhabitants of various nationalities. All were expelled by the British. Interestingly, shortly after, dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas offered more than once to cede the islands to the United Kingdom to pay off a debt Buenos Aires owed British banking institutions. However, London ignored the Argentinian claim or offer.

The United Kingdom founded a colony in the Islands 165 years ago. That was when, for the first time in history, a constant human presence was established permanently in the Falklands. Generationally speaking, the Falklanders have been longer in the Falklands than the majority of Argentinians in Argentina. There should be no doubt, then, that the Falklanders are the legitimate masters of the Falklands, and that their will is to be respected, within the framework of the right of self-determinatioon recognized by international law.

Clearly, Argentina’s claim is a nationalistic mirage, not based in historical facts, but used for propaganda – and possibly economic – purposes.

NOTE:
In my original translation I used Malvinas; after consulting with Pablo Kleinman he said he would use the English term Falklands throughout the English text rather than Malvinas, so I changed the text above, and corrected the name of Soledad Island to East Falkland.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

El Herald’s article, not yet translated to the Miami Herald website, explains (my translation, please credit me and link to this post if you use it),

Approved without public debate during Holy Week through the controversial Enabling Law, the reform forces Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA, the Venezuelan oil company) to give the National Development Fund (FONDEN) a greater portion of the excess income generated by high oil prices.

The fund, which was scheduled to receive some $7 billion this year, will receive an additional $4 billion if the average price of Venezuelan crude remains at $94, according to Venezuelan consulting firm Ecoanalítica.

And those funds will be completely at Chávez’s disposal.

Venezuela News and Views explains the effect of the amendment; The Devil’s Excrement plots the graph.

What this means to the US is that America’s current oil policy is funding foreign governments who will keep themselves in power at all costs.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

Well, he got there, dressed like the natives, kissed up to the Castro brothers, called on Fidel, his “old friend”,

asked the US to release five convicts,

Bypassing ancillary issues such as the lack of freedom on the island and the enslavement of 11-million Cubans, Carter instead demanded that the U.S. release the Cuban 5. Those are the same five convicted Cuban spies who are serving prison time for espionage and the murder of four innocent American pilots who were shot down over international waters by Castro MiGs.

met with Yoani Sanchez, her husband, Claudia Cadelo and Laritza Diversent, and Alan Gross remains in jail

when the 86-year-old ex-president flew off in the afternoon without Alan Gross on board, it dashed the hopes of Washington officials and relatives who had hoped Carter would be able to bring the Maryland native home.

The Obama administration missed the opportunity months ago when it eased restrictions on Cuba without demanding Gross’s released.

As Instapundit puts it,

And we probably have decades of similar stuff to look forward to once Barack Obama is an ex-president.

Indeed.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

There are a couple of things wrong with this:
For starters, if you insist on using that statement, which is not a good translation, it should read,

Es El Momento: Presidente Obama habla directamente a la comunidad hispana sobre el futuro de la educación

The correct statement, however, would have been what @icaito tweeted,

@lacasablanca El Presidente Obama hablará directamente con la población hispana sobre el futuro de la educación. 7pm EST, en Univisión.

@Icaito followed up with,

@lacasablanca Really, who does the Spanish translation for you? Just wondering. I’m Active Duty Navy, willing to lend a hand if needed.

The White House ought to take him up on his offer.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

Sean Penn has come to Charlie Sheen’s defense, saying that Carlos Irwin Estevez is “a guy who has a clearer view of the nature of the world around him than is sometimes comfortable to have”.

I kid you not:
Sean Penn Speaks Out on His Friend Charlie Sheen

Sean Penn on Sheen: “When you divorce the moral judgments, which I prefer to do, I see a guy who has a clearer view of the nature of the world around him than is sometimes comfortable to have. Those are the sort of people who have a tendency to find altered states. But he’s a very ironic character. He’s got pretension in the crosshairs of his wit. I think to a large degree he’s saying, ‘Guys, we’re only going to be here once, so lighten the f–k up.’”

I like that, “He’s got pretension in the crosshairs of his wit.”

Sean didn’t stop there; he invited Charlie to Haiti, as if the blighted country hasn’t had enough yet, and Charlie accepted while using an inappropriate metaphor (emphasis added),

In a conversation with “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush, Sheen said, “I’m excited as hell because, you know, if I can bring the attention of the world down there, then clearly this tsunami keeps cresting.”

Ugh. Poor choice of words, Charlie.

What the above articles don’t mention is that between bromides about pretension and invites to Haiti, Sean’s visiting Venezuela – and Sean’s worried “about what’s going on.”

Sean didn’t go into details about what that meant.

However, Sean’s meeting with Hugo Chávez (link in Portuguese) this weekend to discuss Hugo’s proposal to send a goodwill peace commission to Libya. Chávez claims (link in Spanish) Sean’s worried about what’s going on in Libya, as if there weren’t enough reasons to worry about what’s going on in Venezuela.

Once Sean and Hugo work out the Libya situation, Sean will be heading to Haiti with Charlie next week.

No word as to whether Sean will be introducing Charlie to Hugo any time soon.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.

In an economic environment where the dictatorship fired from state jobs between 500,000 to 1,300,000 people, the island is broke. The fired workers supposedly will be allowed to become self-employed in 178 trades (strictly defined in a “Draft Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy” issued by the dictatorship), even when currently there is no private sector in Cuba, and whatever private sector there may trie to exist, will do so at the whims of the dictatorship.

The Communist regime currently is being propped up by Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Chavez in turn has become a de-facto dictator and must spend lavishly in his own country in order to keep himself in power. Were Chavez to reduce his aid to Cuba,

Cuban social services, the flagships of the Revolution, cannot be sustained under the current economic model and can only remain if all the reforms recommended by President Raúl Castro are enforced.

What this amounts to is to prolong the Cuban Communist dictatorship to live for yet another day.

What did the US get in exchange? Nothing.

The Cuban government has been holding US citizen Alan P. Gross prisoner for since December 2009 without charge on suspicion of spying. Gross has now been formally charged with spying

Prosecutors are charging a jailed American contractor with “acts against the integrity and independence” of Cuba and requesting a 20-year jail term, state news media reported Friday, dimming hopes the 60-year-old Maryland native would be allowed to go home soon.

According to the AP article,

Gross was working for a firm contracted by the U.S. Agency for International Development when he was arrested Dec. 3, 2009, and sent to Havana’s high-security Villa Marista prison. The project Gross worked with was part of a $40 million-a-year USAID program to promote democracy and political change on the island.

U.S. officials have defended the program and said they will never give up pushing for democracy and openness in Cuba. Detractors of the Cuba project have criticized it as ineffective and counterproductive.

While Gross claims to have been working with the 1,500-strong Jewish community, the leaders of the island’s two main Jewish groups have told The Associated Press they had nothing to do with him.

Juan Tamayo, writing at the Miami Herald (via Babalu) reports

Then on Friday, Gross’ Washington lawyer, Peter J. Kahn, issued a surprisingly affirmative reaction to the Cuban announcement, saying that “after 14 months in a Cuban prison without charge, the fact that Alan Gross’ case is now moving forward is a positive development.

“We respectfully urge the Cuban authorities to free Alan immediately for time served,” Kahn added, without making any mention of the 20-year sentence.

Rather than seek Gross’s release and the freedom of Cuban political prisoners as a condition to the easing of travel and money restrictions, the Obama administration granted huge concessions for nothing.

Now Gross is still in prison, will be undergoing trial and may spend the rest of his life (he’s 61 years old) in a Cuban jail.

Smart diplomacy? Thanks for nothing!

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

NOTE: This post has been promoted to the front page of Hot Air and comments are now closed.

At twitter, forsoothsayer,

@Sandmonkey’s been released, he’s on his way home. His car has been destroyed and he and friends were beaten. #egypt #jan25 35 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

More details to come.

Earlier post:

Jane Novak reports,

Doesn’t Mubarek have enough problems? Does he really want to piss off the entire US blogosphere? Sandmonkey is a well known, self-described, “Micro-celebrity, Blogger, activist, New Media douchebag, Pain in the ass!” He was arrested en route to Tahrir square with medical supplies, friends and family report: “I just called @SandMonkey ’s phone and a man answered and he asked me who I am, I said where is monkey, he said your c*nt friend is arrested.”

Jane and Brian Ledbetter post Sandmonkey’s last post.

His account remains suspended, his whereabouts unknown. Read his last post at the links above.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

The idea is to name a US company to transfer the frozen funds, which supposedly would help Haiti recover from last year’s earthquake.

Now, considering how Duvalier and his father unscrupulously pillaged the country and relied on a murderous regime of fear, why am I not buying this?

The American attorneys are Ed Marger, former Republican congressman Bob Barr and Mike Puglise. Barr was the Libertarian Party’s 2008 presidential nominee,

He said the three American lawyers were not involved in Duvalier’s legal problems in Haiti. They were there to advise him on international matters.

Bloomberg has more on the story.

So you were asking why Baby Doc returned to Haiti? I say follow the money.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

“Dentro de poco comenzarán a llegar batallones de tanques rusos para la brigada blindada”, afirmó Chávez, sin más precisiones
(“Batallions of Russian tanks will soon start arriving for the armored brigade”, Chavez stated, without offering further details)

The Noticias 24 article points out that Venezuela has acquired $4.4 billion worth of Russian weaponry since 2005.

For peaceful purposes? Certainly his neighbors don’t think so:
WikiLeaks: Lula was afraid of Venezuela’s purchase of Russian aircrafts
The former Brazilian president expressed his concern to his US counterpart

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog

California’s utilities are spending $548 million over seven years to subsidize consumer purchases of compact fluorescent lamps. But the benefits are turning out to be less than expected.

One reason is that bulbs have gotten so cheap that Californians buy more than they need and sock them away for future use. Another reason is that the bulbs are burning out faster than expected.

Here’s what the compact fluorescents are supposed to do in theory,

Here’s what happened at casa de Fausta: I went to Lowe’s, purchased a box of three CFs, replaced a burned-out incandescent that had been working well for four years with one of the CFs, and turned on the light.

The CF turned on, flickered, and died.

Until some good LEDs are readily available, I’ll keep using incandescents, thank you.

Cross-posted at Fausta’s blog.