Oaxaca Update

Well, it's still a shambles there and leftist protesters are rebuilding some barricades, but the average people are trying to regain their lives.

Federal police held the central square, or Zocalo, but schools and most businesses remained closed and residents tired of five months of paralyzing strikes looked on in dismay as protesters used debris, stones and sand bags to block recently cleared streets.

Demonstrators who flocked to the capital city of 275,000 are demanding the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz, whom they accuse of oppressing dissent and rigging the 2004 elections. Many residents, including several thousand who marched in protest Tuesday, just want to return to life as it was before the strikes began in May.

In a sign that tensions had diminished somewhat, the columns of riot-shield-carrying federal police who had blocked access to the central square on Tuesday morning began allowing residents and business owners to pass through it.

"We feel like we have been born again," said Gilberto Ruiz Fernandez, manager of the Azteca Shoestore, which has been closed sporadically during the conflict.

A scattering of people bought newspapers and crossed the square on their way to work as police officers cleaned up rubbish in the area.

"We feel happy, protected and without fear," said Jesus Velazquez Hernandez, a 20-year-old student who strolled across the Zocalo with his girlfriend. "It's been about three months since we've come … because of the fear that they were going to rob me."

Just a few blocks away, demonstrators hijacked a small bulldozer, doused it with gasoline and set it ablaze, then hurled rocks at police officers who left the Zocalo to extinguish the fire.

Others climbed onto roofs to monitor police movements, or helped maintain a blockade of the main highway to Mexico City. The actions came a day after the protesters transferred their operations center to a plaza away from the Zocalo and maintained control over Oaxaca University, including its radio station.

The average residents want their city back. Mark in Mexico, as always, has on the scene reports of the problems there. It is not all that cheery at the moment.

APPO has been working throughout yesterday and last night to fortify their last redoubt at Benito Juarez University. There are now 5 lines of barricades blocking Avenida Universidad. This normally busy thoroughfare is, when not choked by illegally parked cars, an 8 lane divided boulevard. APPO pseudo-students have 5 city buses blocking the northern end of the boulevard at the big Cinco Señores intersection. At the southern end in front of Plaza Oaxaca, near my location, sits the propane gas tanker.

These idiots set fire to another hijacked truck just 50 feet away from the propane truck. The burning truck has burned down to the rims and is still smoking.

Why the PFP has allowed APPO to build up its forces and barricades here is beyond me. It may be that there simply are not enough federal police to hold down every hot spot around the city. The Zócalo, now under the feds' control, was a simbol of the insurrection, I'll admit. But with every hour that goes by APPO becomes stronger and more dangerous in front of and inside the university. APPO radio is back on the air, so they must have some technical expertise that has allowed them to regain or replace the electricity which was cut off Sunday night.

Coining A New Phrase

Wikipedia defines the term 'Mexican standoff' as: "a slang term defined as a stalemate or impasse, a confrontation that neither side can win". I'd like to propose a new term to describe the current situation in the United Nations. (T)Hugo Chavez has failed to buy enough votes to secure the UN Security Council seat he covets. So he is now holding the entire General Assembly hostage to his failure. So let's term this a 'Venezuelan standoff': one side has lost but can't let go of it.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The stalemate between Guatemala and Venezuela persisted on Tuesday in the battle for an open Latin American seat on the U.N. Security Council with diplomats hoping another foreign ministers meeting would break the impasse.

Guatemala led Venezuela by between 25 and 30 votes in five days and 47 rounds of balloting that began on October 16 but was unable to muster the required two-thirds majority in the 192-member U.N. General Assembly to secure the seat.

The voting will resume on Wednesday afternoon. In the 47th round, Guatemala led Venezuela, which sees its candidacy as a struggle against the United States, 101 to 78; with one vote each for Barbados, Ecuador and Uruguay. The others abstained.

One hopes that Chavez's political opposition is getting some serious mileage out of this ongoing humiliation and repudiation of the Chavez model of political stupidity.

Do You Realize What This Means?

When the residents of Boone, Colorado went to bed Monday night everything was completely normal. When they awoke on Halloween morning, they found that it had all changed overnight.

Someone had covered the town in a veritable carpet of pumpkins.

Residents woke up Tuesday to find virtually every surface covered with the orange holiday icons. There were pumpkins left on front porches and at front gates, on the front and back steps of a church and all along the boundary of the city park.

Larry Taylor said there weren't any pumpkins when he walked his dogs at about 10 p.m. on Monday in the town of about 330 residents, 110 miles southeast of Denver.

But by the time Postmaster Nancy Pennington drove to work at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, they were everywhere.

At Boone Grocery and Hardware, pumpkins were placed on top of the concrete parking stops out front.

"It's kinda cool," said employee Bill Coyle. "It's kinda unique. Throughout the town there's probably a couple of hundred of them. They're everywhere."

Don't you see? This is it! The proof he was looking for all those years is at hand. Well, that or somebody engaged in a massive illegal pumpkin dumping operation.

This Is Damaging

The Democrats absolutely have a major problem understanding the military. They also have a major problem in being gullible about hearing what they want to hear, at least in this one case. Gateway Pundit is all over this one, as is a Kansas City television station. It seems the McCaskill campaign aired a campaign ad that features an Iraq war veteran telling a woeful tale of neglect.

Which appears to be totally and completely false.

I am not going to excerpt it, it needs to be read, including following the links to his past posts on this. McCaskill has virtually no chance whatsoever of getting the vote of any military family, veteran or active duty military after this. Is this enough to undo her? I have no idea. But it is very damaging and comes at a disastrous time.

New Theme Song

Well I'm not uptight, not unattractive
turn me on tonight, I'm radioactive. Radioactive.
Well its not a fight, and I'm not your captive
turn me loose to the night - I'm radioactive, radioactive
(Firm, Radioactive (and John Kerry's new campaign theme song))

CNN reports some news about Kerry that includes a few remarks that validate several things that I said earlier today. John Kerry turned completely radioactive overnight.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. John Kerry has canceled plans to campaign for several fellow Democrats after controversy over his comments to college students about getting "stuck in Iraq."

President Bush's 2004 presidential rival — who explained Tuesday that his comments were a "botched joke" targeting Bush — will not appear with Pennsylvania Senate candidate Bob Casey on Wednesday night in Philadelphia, as originally planned, a Democratic official said.

"I would be surprised if you see him welcomed out there anywhere," the official said, "and certainly not in a race that is meaningful."

Appearing on radio host Don Imus' program, Kerry said Wednesday, "I'm going back to Washington. I'm going back to tackle this, you bet." (Ed Note: Wouldn't you just love to hear the conversation between Kerry and his wife?)

Kerry said the controversy was "swift boat stuff all over again," referring to the 2004 campaign issue about his service in Vietnam. "They shouldn't be allowed to do that," the Massachusetts lawmaker said.

Strategists at both the Democratic House and Senate campaign committees made a point to their campaigns that the flap is a distraction they don't need right now.

The Democratic official said the issue doesn't appear to change the impact of any races, but it may threaten to attract more GOP supporters in close Senate contests in Missouri and Tennessee.

"You just don't need something that might bring out extra people for the other side," the official said.

I wouldn't bet the farm that this didn't impact any races. As I pointed out, it likely will increase turnout for the Republicans and may very well suppress independents who can't stomach voting for a party that doesn't sufficiently support the troops. We'll know in less than a week. But one thing for sure, there is a large supply of antacids and aspirin needed at Democratic headquarters.

Arm’s Length

Even though the media is trying mightily to continue the spin they have built up about the election, it is veering off course for them. Because John "Watch me put the rabbit back into the hat" Kerry undid a lot of their work with one brief, all consuming bit of stupidity. Kerry caused serious damage. And Democratic candidates know it, too.

The dueling rallies scheduled for Mankato today on behalf of Republican congressman Gil Gutknecht and Democratic challenger Tim Walz lost some of their pizzaz Tuesday night when Sen. John Kerry pulled out of the Democratic rally.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the front-runner for the 2008 Republican nomination for president, is the star attraction at a rally at the Midwest Wireless Civic Center for Gutknecht and Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee pulled out of the DFL event, which will still be held, as the result of a controversy over comments he made Monday in California.

Walz communication director Meredith Salsbery said Kerry canceled his visit to keep the focus on the issues and away from Kerry’s comments and McCain’s response.

She wouldn’t comment on whether Walz asked Kerry not to campaign for him, but said the decision was ultimately the senator’s choice.

You can bet, with utter certainty, that Kerry's choice was cancel or be canceled. Now, I have also seen several media attempts to say this will refocus the election on the war. No, it won't. It will focus attention on the lack of support Democrats appear to have for the troops. This reinforces a lot of bad impressions people already had about the Democrats.

The local guys know it, no matter what spin is being attempted. They know it and they are pushing Kerry away to avoid being tainted.

Blogger Polling

John Hawkins over at Right Wing News has completed another poll. This time he asked right-of-center bloggers who they felt would win the elections. I was one of those who participated along with a pretty large number of others:

The Absurd Report, Ankle Biting Pundits (Patrick Hynes), Annika's Journal, The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, Argghhhh!, Barking Moonbat Early Warning System, BizzyBlog, Blue Crab Boulevard, BrothersJudd Blog, In The Bullpen, Brainster's Blog, Captain's Quarters, The Club For Growth Blog, dcthornton.com, Dr. Sanity, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Drumwaster's Rants, Election Projection, Freeman Hunt, Flopping Aces, Jeff Gannon - A Voice of the New Media, Gateway Pundit, GayPatriot, GOP Vixen, Gocinatlanta, Guardian Watchblog, Mary Katharine Ham's Blog, The Hedgehog Report, The House of Wheels, James Hudnall, Hugh Hewitt (Dean Barnett), IMAO (Frank J.), Inoperable Terran, Iowa Voice, Knowledge Is Power, JackLewis, Moxie, My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Newmark's Door, The Nose On Your Face (Potfry), The Nose On Your Face (Buckley), Peaktalk, Poliblog, PoliPundit (Oak Leaf), PoliPundit (AJ Sparxx), Riehl World View, Right Thinking Girl, Right Wing News, Say Anything, Don Singleton, Sister Toldjah, Slobokan's Site Of Schtuff, Natalie Solent, Solomonia, The Squiggler, Stolen Thunder, Suitably Flip, Don Surber, Vox Popoli, Viking Pundit, WILLisms, Wuzzadem

The detailed results can be seen over at RWN, but the most important questions were these two:

1) Do you think the GOP is going to retain control of the House?

Yes (38) — 61.3%
No (24) — 38.7%

2) Do you think the GOP is going to retain control of the Senate?

Yes (56) — 90.3%
No (6) — 9.7%

The poll occurred before the Kerry-tastrophe, so I'd be interested in seeing if the results would be different today.

In Case You Missed It

With all the enormous attention on the Kerry-tastrophe yesterday, many people may have missed a very significant development. North Korea has agreed to return to the six-party negotiations. This is a victory for the Bush administration's policies since Kim tried to detonate a nuke. It is also a slap to those who have counseled caving in and talking to Kim one-on-one - effectively rewarding his bad behavior.

The North's Foreign Ministry made only indirect mention of its underground nuclear detonation last month. Instead, it focused in an official statement on its desire to end U.S. financial restrictions by going back to six-nation arms talks that it has boycotted for a year.

Confirming other nations' reports of the Tuesday agreement, the North's Foreign Ministry said Pyongyang decided to return to negotiations "on the premise that the issue of lifting financial sanctions will be discussed and settled between the (North) and the U.S. within the framework of the six-party talks."

Washington had banned transactions between American financial institutions and Banco Delta Asia SARL — a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau — saying it was being used by North Korea for money-laundering.

The ban is believed to have blocked access to some $24 million for the North's leaders, who indulge their taste for luxury goods like cognac and fine wines while the vast majority of North Koreans live in poverty.

Live in poverty? They are starving too death. This is a very positive development, I suspect.

UPDATE: WaPo coverage. They try to spin it negative for the administration, but it is clearly a cave-in by Pyongyang.

Yo, Ho, Ho

Marine archaeologists are busy excavating what they believe to be the one-time flagship of the notorious pirate Blackbeard. The wreck lies about 1-1/4 miles off the North Carolina coast. They have recovered a fairly large number of artifacts.

This month, a crew of 13 heads out to sea each day, hoping for clear-enough weather to dive the 20 to 25 feet (6 to 7.5 metres) to the ocean bottom to excavate what they believe is Blackbeard's ship.

The team has found cannons, a bell, lead shot of all sizes, gold dust, pewter cups and medical devices, like a urethral syringe used to treat syphilis with mercury.

"A saying at the time was 'a night with Venus and a month with mercury.' And mercury doesn't even cure you," lead archeologist Chris Southerly said in an interview.

In past years, Southerly and his team did spot digs to map the debris field measuring 150 feet by 70 feet (45 metres by 20 metres).

This year, divers are excavating the southern one-third of the site. They use PVC and aluminum pipe to measure five-foot (1.5 meter) squares and meticulously record where objects are found.

But, working 1 1/4 mile off North Carolina, there are problems that landlubber archeologists don't encounter.

"Once we excavate down 2, 3, 4 feet, because of the currents and sand, it falls back in," said Southerly.

There you go, something to take your mind off of politics for a few minutes. There's a pretty good short history of Blackbeard. For something more detailed, here's the museum that is sponsoring the dive team and has pictures of some of the artifacts they have recovered. There's still more here.

Why Everyone Doesn’t Get A Pony

Robert Samuelson has a rather good column at the Washington Post about why things don't change all that much when power shifts in Washington. This should be required reading for the folks who think the sun will come out, Jupiter will Align with Mars and the age of Aquarius will begin the day after the Democrats take control of Congress.

Because, it won't.

The problem of American democracy is (of course) democracy. We are on the cusp of an election that commentators have already imbued with vast significance if Democrats recapture part or all of Congress — or if they don't. But here's something that no one's saying: Regardless of who wins, it won't make much difference for most of our pressing problems. We won't have a major new budget policy, energy policy or immigration policy. The election might not even much affect the Iraq war.

In many ways, the election doesn't matter, and all the hoopla is an exercise in delusional hype. We could blame the prospect of divided government or a bipartisan leadership vacuum; both might promote paralysis. But the deeper cause is public opinion. As Bryce saw, our politicians are slaves to public opinion. Superficially, this should be reassuring. Democracy is working, because public attitudes remain the dominant influence — not "big money" or "special interests," as many believe.

But it is not reassuring. The trouble is that public opinion is often ignorant, confused and contradictory; and so the policies it produces are often ignorant, confused and contradictory — which means they're ineffective. The Catch-22 of American democracy is this: A government that mirrors public opinion offends public opinion by failing to do what it promises. People then conclude that the system has "failed."

The election is rightly seen as a referendum on the war. In late 2003, 67 percent of Americans thought that President Bush's invasion was the "right decision," reports the Pew Research Center; only 26 percent thought it the "wrong decision." Now views are split, 43 percent "right" and 47 percent "wrong." But it's public opinion, not the election outcome, that matters for policy. Indeed, it explains why the Democrats lack a unified position on Iraq.

Suppose that the Democrats retook Congress but that the situation in Iraq — and public opinion — improved. Then, Democrats would look foolish if they'd promoted a quick withdrawal. Now suppose that the Republicans kept control of Congress and that the situation in Iraq — and public opinion — worsened. Then, the pressure on Bush from Republicans to pull back would intensify. Either way, public opinion governs.

Aside from being fickle, public opinion also marches in many directions at once.

Please do read it all, it's quite good, if very jaundiced. Samuelson makes some very good points about why we are like we are. And why government is what it is.

Played Fairly Straight

The Washington Post reports the Kerry incident fairly straight although they try to downplay it a little. They do report the actual words but imply that Bush did something underhanded by alerting the networks that he was going to address Kerry's remarks. But the damaging words are there for everyone to read.

President Bush last night accused Sen. John F. Kerry of disparaging U.S. troops in Iraq, echoing the 2004 strategy of ridiculing the Massachusetts senator to raise anew questions about Democratic leaders and their commitment to the troops. The highly coordinated White House effort came as Republicans sought to shift the focus away from an unpopular war and GOP scandals that are putting their congressional majorities at risk.

The controversy erupted after Kerry told a California audience on Monday: "Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Yesterday, Bush, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the American Legion and many GOP candidates pounced on the comment from the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee to accuse him of insulting U.S. troops. The president said Kerry owes service members an apology — echoing a parade of prominent Republicans who criticized the Massachusetts Democrat throughout the day.

After reading Kerry's comments to a GOP audience in Georgia, Bush said Kerry's statement was "insulting and it is shameful. The members of the United States military are plenty smart and they are plenty brave, and the senator from Massachusetts owes them an apology." The White House tipped off the networks to when Bush would attack Kerry, so the comments could be carried live and make the evening news.

In his defense, Kerry said that his comment was a "botched joke" and that he was referring to Bush's intellect, not that of American military personnel serving in Iraq.

They quote an unnamed Democratic strategist as saying:

The strategist, who would not discuss internal strategy on the record, said the Kerry comments are an unnecessary distraction but would soon be forgotten. Democrats, who faulted Kerry for failing to respond forcefully enough two years ago, said the senator fell into a GOP trap of debating Democratic support for the troops instead of Bush's management of the war.

Now that little bit of wishful thinking may just be spin or it may reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the damage this did. I do not think this is going to change all that many minds in the ranks of the Democrats. No, the damage here is that all the effort Dems have expended to try to suppress the conservative votes has been undone. Further it will damage the Dems with independents and may, likely will in fact, suppress turnout from that group that the Dems needed. That's how I read this one, we'll know who's right in less than a week.

Insufficiently Partisan

Ruth Marcus has a piece up over at the Washington Post that should be a must read for those who don't know who Alcee Hastings is and why people remember his name unfavorably. The reason is that Nancy Pelosi took time off from thinking about what she'll do in the first one hundred nanoseconds of her Rule Of The Iron Fist™ (or something like that) to decree that She would strictly follow seniority for appointing committee chairs. That means that the House Intelligence committee chair would go to Hastings. Why? Because Nancy Pelosi does not believe Jane Harman is sufficiently partisan.

If Democrats win control of the House next week, Nancy Pelosi's first test as speaker will arrive long before the 110th Congress convenes. Her choice to head the House intelligence committee — unlike other House committees, this one is left entirely up to the party leadership — will speak volumes about whether a Speaker Pelosi will be able to resist a return to paint-by-numbers Democratic Party interest-group politics as usual.

Pelosi is in a box of her own devising. The panel's ranking Democrat is her fellow Californian Jane Harman — smart and hardworking but also abrasive, ambitious and, in Pelosi's estimation, insufficiently partisan on the committee. So Pelosi, once the intelligence panel's ranking Democrat herself, has made clear that she doesn't intend to name Harman to the chairmanship.

The wrong decision, in my view, but one that's magnified by the unfortunate fact that next in line is Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings. In 1989, after being acquitted in a criminal trial, Hastings was stripped of his position as a federal judge — impeached by the House in which he now serves and convicted by the Senate — for conspiring to extort a $150,000 bribe in a case before him, repeatedly lying about it under oath and manufacturing evidence at his trial.

Ordinarily, that might doom Hastings's chances, but the situation is further inflamed by racial politics: Hastings is African American, and the Congressional Black Caucus has made it clear that it will not tolerate his rejection. Another black lawmaker, Georgia's Sanford Bishop, was passed over to accommodate Harman, who reclaimed her seniority when she returned to Congress in 2000 after a gubernatorial run. And the black caucus is still smarting over Pelosi's move to oust Louisiana's William J. Jefferson from the Ways and Means Committee after the FBI found a freezerful of cash in Jefferson's home.

There are a lot of egos involved here. But the fact is Hastings did what is very nearly impossible. He got himself removed from the Federal bench. I remember the ruckus but really hadn't remembered the details. Marcus helpfully reminds everyone why he was found guilty by the Senate:

The evidence against Hastings is circumstantial, but it's too much to explain away: a suspicious pattern of telephone calls between Hastings and Borders at key moments in the case; Borders's apparent insider knowledge of developments in the criminal case; Hastings's appearance at a Miami hotel, as promised by Borders as a signal that the judge had agreed to the payoff; a cryptic telephone conversation between the two men that appears to be a coded discussion of the bribe arrangement.

Consider: Hastings, a federal judge, gets word from Borders's lawyer that Borders has been arrested for conspiring to bribe him and that the FBI wants to interview him. Instead of calling the FBI agents whose names and numbers he's been given, Hastings leaves his hotel without checking out and heads to the airport outside Baltimore instead of National, where there's an earlier flight. At BWI, Hastings calls his girlfriend, has her call him back at a different pay phone, then asks her to leave the house to call him from a pay phone, then calls her back from a different pay phone. He doesn't speak to the FBI until they track him down at the girlfriend's house later that night.

If somehow the Democrats do win the House, something I am not at all sure they were going to do even before John "Geeze, I wish this was a magic helmet" Kerry "helped" them yesterday, the first act of the Pelosi regime will be to elevate this man to a chairmanship.

And people really think things will be better with Pelosi and company in charge? Really?