Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year, We'll Be Away for Awhile

(From Somewhere Away from the Potomac) We wish you and your families a blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year. As you can deduce from the lack of recent posts, we've been away for some time now. This will continue to be the case at least for the first few months of 2008. We shall keep checking our e-mail nuggets at westernhpw@gmail.com, however, posting must wait until we return to our favored "banks on the Potomac." Freedom works. Thank you for your support and votes of encouragement in 2007. And, remember, keep those nuggets coming.

Sticks and Stones Can be ... Tossed at an Airplane

(From the Banks of the Potomac) Every now and then there is a dint of good news from within the Western Axis countries that brings smiles to WHPW editors. Sure, the vote last Sunday in Venezuela was good, but this little gem from Bolivia reminds us that freedom is much more powerful than communism or socialism's yoke.

The Washington Times reports today that a Venezuelan Air Force C-130 was stoned, yes you read correctly stoned by a "posse" of quickly assembled protesters in a southern area airport in the Beni Province of Bolivia. The Times reports that Ernesto Suarez, the governor of Beni province where Riberalta airport is located, said he had received reports that the plane was going to deliver "heavy armaments" to the city when it landed Thursday, and that a posse of citizens had been organized to see what was on board the plane.

When the posse led by the local civic committee was denied access to the aircraft, its members began pelting it with rocks. Mr. Suarez said the group managed to make a short video which showed the plane's hold filled with cargo pallets and armed men. Yet, as if this were not good enough, "The protesters also beat up and briefly detained a Venezuelan official coming off the aircraft with a briefcase full of cash. Police later identified him as Luis Ferrer, a manager for the Development Bank of Venezuela, and said he was carrying $160,000."

To our colleagues in Washington, DC that drone on and on about the many challenges in Latin America, and how we are not ready, or how we have failed in the region, we say: where there is a will there is way. The people of the Americas love freedom. As clearly demonstrated by the recent small action in Bolivia, just tell them you will support them, inform them, and they will do the rest. There is a lesson here for those of you that follow events in Cuba too ...

Another interesting note from the story, what does Venezuela portend with uranium shipments from third countries if not to store it, hoard it, or export it to the Iranian mullahs? There was not a word about Iranian adventurism in the Western Hemisphere in the publicly released version of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) and, we suspect, not much in the 150-page classfied version either with respects to Iranian acts in the Americas.

With the millions that we spend every year in USAID monies, who would have thought that a pile of rocks and some initiative would rise to the level of serious political action? We tend to complicate things in Washington, DC you see. But, as in the U.S., the electorate is smart and knows better. Trust the people and you will always come out ahead. Too much talking in DC, not enough action.

Read the complete Washington Times story, Caracas Flight Stoned in Bolivia.

Around the Block for Some Café ...

(From the Banks of the Potomac) In May Colombia's national police commander was forced to resign after it was learned that that officers had illegally wiretapped state officials, opposition politicians and journalists. Well it looks like political voyeurism is still an issue with someone in Colombia as new allegations have surfaced on yet more tapings and, this time, it involves President Uribe. The left is working over time in Colombia. May it be the last time that Uribe invites them to be (i.e., Chavez negotiating with the FARC, etc.).

Hugo Chavez "loses" a referendum in his own country so what does he do? He's back to his same old mischief back in our country. "A Houston unit of a state-owned company backed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a foe of the Bush administration, will supply oil at 40 percent below market prices in 23 states, an expansion from 16 states last year." Will someone in the Bush Administration just consider, consider, adding Venezuela to the State Department State Sponsor's of Terrorism list?

Meanwhile, we keep finding more U.S.-based websites supporting another terrorist group in Latin America, the Zapatista Liberation Army. The Zapatista Calender of Northern California alerts people to pro-Zapatista events in Mexico and asks for donations for the terrorist movement. Here is a Radio Zapatista site (and all of the links). Here, again, is another test for State and Treasury: list this group as terrorist organization and begin to clamp down on U.S. based support networks for these friends of the Western Hemisphere Axis (i.e., Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Nicaragua).

The Canadian Sentinel blog has a good recent post about Mexico and its ongoing relations with none other than ... the Islamic Republic of Iran.

It looks like the other debating society of the Inter-American system in town, Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) (the other being the OAS), has some competition from the Bolivarian Axis, the new Bolivarian ("Axis") Development Bank. Pioneered by Hugo Chavez with support from so-called friends of the U.S. Brazil and Argentina, the founders claim it will be a new fund for a new Latin American development "Communist/Socialist" system for the Americas. ECRISIS details it and other related items in a very good post: "Correa Celebrates the Chavez Coronation in Argentina: a FAUSTIAN PACT called Bolivarianism."

U.N. Imperialism making more inroads in the Western Hemisphere. Yes, you read correctly the U.N. or United Nations. Earlier this month Western Hemisphere Axis leader Bolivia's Evo Morales announced "the passage of National Law 3760 or the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, legislation that is an exact copy of the United Nation's recently passed Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples."

"Español Is Winner of Univision Debate"

(From the Banks of the Potomac) It is U.S. law that "[n]o person except as otherwise provided in this title shall hereafter be naturalized as a citizen of the United States upon his own application who cannot demonstrate an understanding of the English language, including an ability to read, write, and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language ...". 8 U.S.C. 1423 (a)(1). Then why, we ask, did six Republican Party presidential nominee hopefuls partake in a Spanish-language debate this past weekend?

Initially, the GOP did the right thing by staying away from this Univision forum, however, after a great deal of pressure by company owners and usually conservative Cuban-Americans, the whole field of leading candidates and a few stragglers caved. The only candidate that did not show for the forum was Tom Tancredo. While we agree with his "boycotting" statement he was not the right messenger.

An op-ed published by a group known as the New American Media summed up what was at play yesterday and with the Democrat debate, "throughout the hour-and-a-half forum held in Coral Gables, Fla., the politics of the Spanish language forced each candidate to alter his English-language political shtick." Read the op-ed, here. "Thirty-one million people in the United States speak Spanish here … Do you think that there would be a value – a practical value – of making English the official language in this country?,” asked Univision anchor and staunch anti-American Jorge Ramos.

Without exception every candidate fell for the bait. Not one challenged the veracity of any of the facts or figures hurled by the anchors (one of which, we are told, is not even an American citizen, Ramos). In the end, this process is about ratings and hype. Wall Street and advertising companies have made billions in ethnic marketing. They have created a pan-Hispanic market and, in the process, laid a foundation that rather than uniting our country will ultimately divide it.

For those of you that may not be familiar with the Reconquista Movement, you should learn more about it. It is a new form of cultural imperialism being foisted on our U.S. by the radical left, the Government of Mexico, and the facilitators such as major media outlets such as Univision. Rather than E Pluribus Unum, these groups seek to divide and balkanize American politics through culture and, guess what, language is their first weapon.

This movement is, well you guessed it, mainly Leftist and rooted firmly in the radical left wing of the Democratic Party. These are the people that advocate for amnesty in this town and that have, through careful mainstreaming during the past few years, convinced the Bush Administration and some Republicans in Congress that it is a good idea to give people a free pass for breaking U.S. law. And for fellow readers that will correctly point out that Reagan did something similar in the 1980s, we say touche. But those were different times, with Communism creeping up Central America and throughout the Hemisphere. The politics and post-09/11/01 world are much different.

By participating in this forum the Republican Party has become no better than the Democratic Party when it comes to pandering and race-baiting.

A "U.S. Americans" Moment for White House Flack

(From the Banks of the Potomac) Miss South Carolina 2007 may be in good company with the White House Press Secretary it seems. Well, not really but the analogy was passed along by a reader and it was good enough to pass along. The folks the Raw Story (jumping from the Washington Post) report today that White House Press Secretary Dana Perino did not know one of the high points of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis:

"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis," said Perino, who at 35 was born about a decade after the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear showdown. "It had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure." Read the complete post, here (link to audio clip as well).

Alright, this should be a non-story but we do report on the lighter things at Western Hemisphere Policy Watch. So, for you out there that e-mail us all the time asking us to lighten up, our deed is done for the year.

To not be too harsh on Ms. Perino, she's much better than any Democrat Spin Doctor at the Blue Goose, or even former Secretary of State Colin Powell praising the Cuban health care system just a few years ago.

On a serious note, and people in this town wonder why Fidel Castro and his buddies have been in power for so long? No one really takes freedom in the Americas very seriously, do they?

Around the Block for Some Café ...

(From the Banks of the Potomac) Basing it just on the weather the past few days if we were not in Washington, DC one would think this was London. Looking out the window at our Virginia headquarters just overlooking the Potomac river, a dense fog hovers just about the top of the river and quite low on the river bank. Very appropriate setting for the week ahead as the Democrat-controlled Congress returns to town to further attempt to make a mess of things and steer us Leftward.

On the pending Colombia FTA, our sources advise that the only hold-up are, surprise, the labor unions such as the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters. The former seeks legitimacy-making as its only aim, while the latter is angling for a better deal with the Colombians. Our sources also advise that Chairman Rangel and Speaker Pelosi are ready to deal. We shall see. One thing is certain, the Colombian government has just about expended any goodwill it had in this town. It needs to hire a new team of lobbyists that know what they are doing.

Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on Cuba this week. No doubt an utter waste of time as there are no votes to change U.S. policy on Cuba, but they must mollify the Leftists in this town that still want to legitimize a Communist regime just 90 miles from our shores by normalizing relations with Cuba before its proper time. Watch out people, they may be looking to insert items into an upcoming omnibus appropriations bill. As usual, the greedy ag lobby is looking for fire sales, the Senate may just give them one.

In other regional news, it appears that our Russian pals shall be re-joining their cousins in Cuba. Pravda announced that Cuba and Russia "are to share their experience and knowledge in IT technologies." It sounds to us like the Lourdes listening "spy" station is or has been given in a new place with upgrades that include nanotechnology. Russia needs to hurry to catch up, the Chinese are eons ahead and have been spying on us from Cuba ever since the Soviets began their alleged pullout.

On the homeland front, the JawaReport blog posts: "Fake Passports + Phony IDs + Lots of Cash + Ties to Muslim Groups = Nothing to See Folks, Move Along." Again, all amnesty for illegal alien supporters should read this, and related posts, about immigration.

Talking about the religion of "peace," this story in the Jakarta Time really made our editors feel all so warm, fuzzy, and safe: "Member countries of the Forum for Southeast Asia and Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) have emphasized the need to improve cooperation in countering terrorism in the region. Closer cooperation and other recommendations were made following a two-day seminar on counter-terrorism, which focused on sharing experiences in dealing with terrorism." Read the complete story, here. This is a classic, foreign powers regional meddling story - the primary driver why we started this blog a few years ago.

Cuba will push Iran from South America, or so says the editors of Petroleum World. While we generally agree with some of the factual statements in the piece, WHPW Editors think that Cuba is working with, not against, the Iranian efforts to penetrate the Hemisphere. The Cubans will teach the Venezuelans to do with the Iranians what Cuba did with the Soviets during throughout the Cold War. Yet, unlike the Cold War when we were dealing with a semi-rational Soviet Empire, the Iranians are a loose and more dangerous breed.

For wrap up matter, SOUTHCOM recently the U.S. Army South and Uruguayan army planned for PKO South exercises in 2008. There was also a similar meeting with the Argentines recently.

And finally, a reader to WHPW suggests: " 'if the CIA destroyed the interrogation tapes, why then issue the following statement if not to further embarrass former Director Porter Goss, the Bush Administration, and, as some sources argue, keep currying political capital/favors from the Democratic leadership in Congress?' ".

We think the latter reader suggesiton on the IC is a little more complex than what our source suggests, but intriguing enough to pass along. Then again, we agree with Israeli officials that recently said "Americans' attitude to [NIE Iran] report reminiscent of Auschwitz." Just like we worked closely with Chruchill during WWII, so should we do so with Israel - our only staunch ally in the part of the world. Rest assured, unlike relations with Uncle Joe during WWII that led to the rise of the USSR, we doubt that our relations with Israel will be lead us to create alliances that will pave the road for a Radical Islamic Caliphate. Our relationship with Israel may not be perfert, but none ever really are in the field of foreign relations. She is an ally no less, best we continue treating her like one.

Read, think, learn.

Keep the nuggets coming.

Around the Block for Some Café ...

(From the Banks of the Potomac) Well, according to a Blog Readability service our humble blog ranks "College - Post Graduate," or one shy of the highest ranking, Genius. It's not a scientific thing, but thank you to our readers for sending it our way. We're currently assessing which editor is dragging us down ...

On a more serious note, Tiquicia's Blog reminds us all why Oscar Arias should not be in politics. Arias was "celebrating" 59 years without a military, monies used to help the people of Costa Rica. However, "Poverty has remained at roughly 20% for nearly 20 years, and the strong social safety net that had been put into place by the government has eroded due to increased financial constraints on government expenditures." (Source: CIA World Factbook)

While back in Bolivia where they do have an army, Boli-Nica blog reports on how Western Hemisphere Axis member Evo Morales keeps taking the little democracy left in that country to an end.

A small but growing group of malcontents living in the Southwest and Central U.S., dubbed by some as the Reconquista movement, are causing trouble of late in Montana. In Kalispell Montana, a Mexican flag was erected in front of a U.S. flag 200 feet up a huge tower that belongs to the oldest radio station in America - KGEZ. Before the incident, station owner John Stokes said that he was getting calls from angry supporters of the extremist La Reconquista movement, a separatist group that advocates the violent overthrow of the southern and western U.S. states, and had also received death threats." Read the complete post, here. And there are people in Congress and the Bush Administration want to deliver amnesty?

The Cuban Triangle blog reports that the Cuban Communist Party has taken, once again, to attacking people in Catholic Churches, while the CCP's youth wing appears to be allowed to post external blogs (i.e., of the kind that no one in Cuba could see or read because Internet access is banned for ordinary, non-party members).

Some in the U.S. Congress are paying attention to troubles in the Americas, yet talk is easy in this town. Action, as we have seen during the past few years is quite another thing. They cannot fix a nagging issue just 90 miles from our shores so they shift focus to another country just a few more thousand miles away. Classic.

In nearby Stafford County, Virginia, an MS-13 Gang member cuts his trial short, and gets spared the needle, by pleading guilty for killing a member of a rival gang. Life in prison, some would say a waste of taxpayer monies. As frequent readers of WHPW know, the MS-13 and related gang issues are tied to the radical Left of Latin America and supported by the likes of Cuban and Venezuelan intelligence services.

While on the subject, or close enough, of illegal aliens and border control, the folks at Stop the Security and Prosperity Partership Blog have a recent post on a bipartisan Congressional resolution calling President Bush to commute immediately the sentences of Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, so they can be home with their families by Christmas.

More on the North American Union, and the growing netroots efforts to inform and slow the process down, here. As the prior blog says, while we were busy taking care of our families and every day lives, someone in our government was busy too ... read, learn, think.

Keep the nuggets coming.

Pelosi's Blue Christmas Tree, Russia, the CFR, and Colombia

Ladies, gentlemen, and miscreants, it is another fine day in our Nation's Capitol city. Although cold and dank, it has been raining since yesterday evening, we can relish in the warm thought that as soon as next Saturday we may bid adieu for 2007 the Democrat-controlled Congress. May they unplug the blue bulb tree on the West Lawn while they are it.

Seriously now, leave it to Democrats to literally and figuratively bring us all a "blue Christmas" as a present. The Capitol Tree has been decorated with what appear to be just blue bulbs this year. The Speaker, who opposes U.S. trade with Communist China, requested that the Architect of the Capitol use energy-efficient bulbs - no doubt also Made in China - for the National Tree. A proper tribute to a hypocritical left-wing Congress and its tax-and-spend, weak on national security ways.

Alright, enough with the politics and the Democrats. Let's talk Russians for a few lines. The good bloggers at Once Upon A Time in the West (OUTW) ran an item earlier this week about an secret meeting on the Potomac that, naturally, caught our attention.

It appears that there was an unannounced meeting in our little town of Washington, DC between Yuri Baluyevsky, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, who referred to Americans as "evil" last month, and Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. OUTW, among other things, argues that this meeting and other related events "points strongly toward the incorporation of America into the Red World Order." Outlandish? You be the judge since there is a lot more there to read at the OUTW post here.

What we especially like about some of OUTW's arguments is the pervasiveness of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in U.S. policy circles. While we do not ascribe any sort of conspiracy to it, we do know that this town's primary commodity is information. One takes information to influence our government one way or another. In addition to individuals, groups such as the CFR also use information to sway a position one way or another, network, make money, or whatever "rocks their world" as our younger ones say from time to time.

The CFR and its tentacle support system in Washington, DC is a problem for the Western Hemisphere. It is large enough and influential enough an entity that people should take notice and block it whenever one its members or affiliates comes a knocking asking for something or bearing gifts.

CFR proposals side with the Left in the Americas and undermine long-term U.S. interests throughout the region. Left to their own devices we would be negotiating with the Cuban Communist Party, mediating a de facto division of Colombia by legitimizing the FARC, treating Hugo Chavez as a statesman and not the thug that he is, as well as sundry of U.S.-weakening positions in order to make way for a new order in the Americas. This new order, feeds into some of the discussions posited by our colleagues at OUTW.

As a more recent example of this bizarre set of circumstances, consider the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade pact. The left wing of the Democratric Party in Congress is working overtime to ensure that it does not see the light of day before 2008. One of the best and most reliable U.S. allies in South America is treated like a pariah because it will not yield to demands from the pugnacious left in our Congress, some of which by the way label the FARC as freedom fighters.

This is not to say that the Colombians and Alvaro Uribe are not partly to blame for this policy fiasco. First, it should have never allowed the Venezuelan dictator to meddle in Colombian affairs. Not only is Hugo Chavez supporting and arming the FARC, along with the Cuban Communist Party, but he is seeking to destroy Colombian democracy by any means he can.

Then there is the failed Colombian lobby effort in Washington, DC. The Colombian Ambassador is a prodigy of the former Ambassador and current president of the Inter-American Development Bank. Yet the latter still thinks that the former needs coaching, so he meddles a little too much. A good enough chap he is but as far as lobbying our Congress, well, the proof is in the proverbial political pudding: no Colombia FTA = failure of lobby effort.

Finally, WHPW Editors, supporters of the FTA and the Uribe Administration, think nonetheless that the Colombian governments need to do more to effectively deal with terrorists. After decades of U.S. investments in the region, in what has become a bigger failure for Colombia than the Vietnam War may have been to the U.S., something needs to give. Stop chattering so much and just do. Treat terrorists as terrorists. Do not negotiate with terrorists. Get the job done. The U.S. taxpayer will not be writing out checks forever to the Colombian Treasury.

All of that said though, the FTA should be approved before the end of the year. Yet, the Pelosi Left Democrats may not do so. They are weak and on cue from tips from the CFR may see no need to do so. Other things to consider include the following list of items from an article, yes worth a read, at the Center for Intelligence Studies (CIS) here in town:

Among the many current examples that might be cited are the failed war on drugs; the willful failure to secure our borders against the tidal waves of illegal immigration that are sweeping across them; the growing crisis within our educational system, where critical thought has been replaced by politically correct sophistry; and the intense, systematic, and sustained effort to drive Christianity from the public square. But these are only the most visible contemporary examples – the actual list goes on and on.

The CIS quote comes from a paper they posted on tax-exempt foundations, such as the CFR, and the influence that these groups wield in the Halls of U.S. power. So, when you wonder why the control of Congress is so important, consider what they say and recall who wields the gavels at important Committee such as Ways and Means and Finance - two of the Committees putting their boots on the necks of the Colombians... You can read the CIS article here (scroll down and look for the piece titled, "Connecting the Dots; Part II").

We have posted a lot more than we intended. Follow the links. Read and think. And, as always, keep the nuggets coming.