Caracas - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, under fire at home and abroad for his intimidation of domestic opponents, was feted as a "warrior of freedom" on Thursday by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.

The 80-year-old African leader, who is barred from traveling to the European Union by EU sanctions, was warmly received by left-winger Chavez after he arrived in Caracas to attend a two-day summit of developing nations.

"You are and always will be a true warrior of freedom," Chavez said as he presented Mugabe with a replica of the sword of Simon Bolivar, the Venezuelan-born independence hero of Latin America.

Former paratrooper Chavez is facing a bid by foes to hold a referendum on his rule, and is seeking solidarity at this week's summit from Third World leaders he sees as soul mates.

President Robert Mugabe's government has set up secret camps across the country in which thousands of youths are taught how to torture and kill, the BBC has learned.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:11 AM -

Pretoria - A South African air force plane will leave for Haiti early next week to support the country's government.

The Boeing 747 is expected to leave as early as Tuesday morning after Police requested the flight.

On board the plane would be 5 000 bullets, 200 smoke grenades and 200 bullet-proof vests, according to a document in local newspaper Beeld's possessio

To help accomplish this, Talbott pressed for the use of the U.S. military to restore an extreme leftist, defrocked Catholic priest Jean Bertrand Aristide, to power in Haiti in 1994. Confidential documents from the U.N., publicized by AIM at the time, said that Talbott and other officials viewed an invasion as “politically desirable.”

Aristide, a Marxist-oriented advocate of Liberation Theology, had been booted from the presidency by the military because, among other things, he was inciting mobs to threaten to burn to death judges and legislators if they did not do his bidding.

U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown verbally attacked a top Bush administration official during a briefing on the Haiti crisis Wednesday, calling the President's policy on the beleaguered nation "racist" and his representatives "a bunch of white men."

Her outburst was directed at Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega during a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill. Noriega, a Mexican-American, is the State Department's top official for Latin America.
...
Noriega later told Brown: "As a Mexican-American, I deeply resent being called a racist and branded a white man," according to three participants.

Brown then told him "you all look alike to me," the participants said.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:04 AM -

Kerry, who has dominated the Democratic race with wins in 18 of the first 20 contests, said he favored the death penalty only in cases of terrorism. But asked in the debate at the University of Southern California about a child killer, he said he would "want to strangle that person with my own hands."

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:10 AM -

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:19 AM -

OT
OK
Re: FBI visit

It turns out it was a nasty letter I wrote to Paul Krugman - NY Times, in October. I looked for it but I can't find it.

He asked if I admitted writing it and I said sure.

His demeanor was non threatening. He had a file on me but I couldn't see what it consisted of.

He asked that I not record him. When asked why he said he simply did not like to be recorded.

So, I didn't. I haven't mustered sufficient 'balls', if you will , to argue with an FBI dude.

Bottom line, per the agent, I'm in the system and if anything I write in the future, that can be construed as threatening and is brought to their attention, they would have to possibly charge me. I asked how the letter, a profane but non threatening note, was taken to be threatening. He said it was up to the individual receiving it to determine if they feel it is a threat and the final determination would be made by a judge. Yeah, me in front of a liberal judge should land me in jail for the rest of my natural days.
Anyway, I would go through the hell of having to defend my anger if it is interpreted as a threat in tone or intent, but does not necessarily consist of an actual threat.

I confess to being upset. I am crushed by what is happening to America and I let him know it.

Nicely.

I could tell he empathized. In fact, at one point he said he wouldn't have much good to say to Krugman either
.
But for the most part he was polite and neutral and obviously very tired.

Which prompted me to apologize for using his time in an inconsequential issue. He agreed and said he intended to tell me just that. That it took all day today to track me down ( I never tried to disguise my IP and I signed my name because I thought that would show it wasn't a threat. I mean, Jesus...)( fine, I'm stupid)and will take another two hours tomorrow to write it up and that it took that much time for his New York counterpart.

I take responsibility for allowing my anger to drive me to write pointless angry letters, but, as I told him, I feel helpless and impotent watching my country being destroyed from within.

The fact that it was a frigging liberal asswipe and not a Muslim only proves who the frigging censors are.

This seemed to take the life out of me so I think I'll just go outside and stare at the river awhile. I still have one more airport run or I'd abandon myself to a good cry.

And yes, I live on the top two stories of a barge along the Ohio . They repair yachts and such stuff down below. I have an awesome crows nest, all windows, from which I brood and write and brood. When I'm not driving limos.

I definitely need a life.

Thanks for all those of you who advised me.

It's odd that I turned to LGF, when threatened, but it is so comforting ya'll are here.

Well, this profane bitch is going to go brood.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:11 AM -

Fidel Castro rules the poverty stricken population of Communist Cuba where the average citizen scrapes by on starvation wages while managing to become one of the world's richest men.

According to Forbes magazine's annual compilation of the world's richest people, while reducing what was once a prosperous nation to the level of a desperately poor third-world country the fatigues-clad dictator has amassed a personal fortune of $195 million.

"The fatigues-fitted Cuban leader has lorded over an impoverished nation of 11 million people for the last 45 years," Forbes reported, adding that Castro "is believed to have several lavish homes throughout Cuba. He travels exclusively in a convoy of black Mercedes-Benzes."

"Deals struck with European companies - such as the reported $50 million sale of Havana Club rum to French liquor company Pernod Ricard in 1993 - line Castro's coffers with some $20 million a year," Forbes wrote.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:13 AM -

February 26, 2004 -- Sen. John Kerry has tried to blame the crisis in Haiti on President Bush, claiming that the administration fostered the instability that led to the uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Nonsense.

Haiti has been a basket case since forever - and the roots of this crisis are directly traceable to the effective abandonment of Haiti by the international community after the United States returned Aristide to power in 1994.

Does that make it Bill Clinton's fault?

Actually, if anyone is responsible for the rebellion that has conquered the north of Haiti and now threatens the capital of Port-au-Prince, it is surely Aristide himself.

In power, this longtime hero of the American left turned out to be inept, corrupt, capricious and brutal; he has ruled through street gangs and police thugs.

With no army and only a few thousand poorly trained police, Aristide has relied on armed gangs to sustain his authority. In 2000, he rigged parliamentary elections in favor of his own party, sparking outrage and laying the basis for a broad-based opposition, which has gathered pace and strength in recent months.

Now one of those same violent street gangs - the "cannibal army" from Gonsalves - has turned against its patron and is leading the rebellion.

As for the conditions that turned so many Haitians against the government, it was Aristide's refusal to hold fair elections that led to the international cutoff in aid, worsening an economy damaged by his mismanagement.

Kerry says that he would threaten to deploy troops to protect Aristide because "this democracy is going to be sustained."

Hmmm. What democracy might that be, Senator?

The Bush administration has dealt with the uprising correctly - by pushing for a diplomatic solution together with the Caribbean and international communities.

There might have to be a U.S.-led intervention eventually, to restore order in Haiti and forestall a massive exodus to Florida.

But Aristide does not deserve American protection, and the bloodshed in Haiti is not President Bush's fault - whatever candidate Kerry says.

The last time democracy fell apart in Haiti, black Democrats launched a very public campaign to get the Clinton administration to return Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power.

As Aristide's rule again nears collapse, the same players are stepping up pressure again — only now it's on the Bush administration. And they are using different tactics. Rather than sending protesters into the streets, they're buttonholing top officials and showing up at President Bush (news - web sites)'s doorstep on short notice to urge that democratic rule be preserved in Haiti.

"This is an urgent moment calling for urgent action," Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Wednesday after he notified Bush's top aides that members of the Congressional Black Caucus would pay an impromptu visit to the White House.

The president said he supports creation of an international security presence in Haiti to maintain order if a political settlement is reached.
...
American blacks contend that policy smacks of racism. They say the United States is unwilling to risk sending soldiers into the chaotic Caribbean nation, the Western Hemisphere's poorest, because its people are of African descent.

When Bush's words reached Jesse Jackson in Libya on Wednesday, he began dialing up members of Congress and administration officials to lash out.

"It is clear that the right wing in this country does not support that democracy," Jackson said in a telephone interview. "(Bush) is, in fact, supporting overthrow of this government in this hemisphere."

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 6:52 AM -

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Foreigners tried to flee Haiti on Wednesday, some guarded by U.S. Marines, as looting erupted in the capital and pressure mounted for international intervention in the 3-week-old uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Panic overtook the city, although there was no sign of the rebels who have overrun half of Haiti and are threatening Port-au-Prince.

And French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin urged the "immediate" dispatch of an international civilian force to restore order in its former colony.

France also said it wants human rights observers sent to Haiti and a "long term" engagement of international aid aimed at reconstructing its economy.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 4:35 PM -

US Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the frontrunner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, described Israel's construction of a security barrier as a "legitimate act of self defense" after Sunday's suicide bombing in Jerusalem, clarifying a position he took in October when he told an Arab American audience, "We don't need another barrier to peace."
...
It has been rare for Democratic candidates to issue statements on incidents like bombings in Israel over the past few months. Kerry's statement, highlighting the justification for the fence, came a week before the crucial March 2 "Super Tuesday" primaries, which include New York with its high concentration of Democratic Jewish voters, some political observers noted.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 12:31 AM -

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:55 PM -

For readers who enjoyed Mark Steyn's piece in the London Daily Telegraph this morning, here is a picture of the young lass he's writing about. I understand that she is open to proposals of marriage... so long as it does not involve her actually DOING anything.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 3:47 PM -

Senator John Kerry, a decorated battle veteran, was courageous as a navy lieutenant in the Vietnam War. But he was not so courageous more than two decades later, when he covered up voluminous evidence that a significant number of live American prisoners—perhaps hundreds—were never acknowledged or returned after the war-ending treaty was signed in January 1973.

The Massachusetts senator, now seeking the presidency, carried out this subterfuge a little over a decade ago— shredding documents, suppressing testimony, and sanitizing the committee's final report—when he was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on P.O.W./ M.I.A. Affairs.

In the end, the fact that Senator Kerry covered up crucial evidence as committee chairman didn't seem to bother too many Massachusetts voters when he came up for re-election—or the recent voters in primary states. So I wouldn't predict it will be much of an issue in the presidential election come November. It seems there is no constituency in America for missing Vietnam P.O.W.'s except for their families and some veterans of that war.

A year after he issued the committee report, on the night of January 26, 1994, Kerry was on the Senate floor pushing through a resolution calling on President Clinton to lift the 19-year-old trade embargo against Vietnam. In the debate, Kerry belittled the opposition, saying that those who still believed in abandoned P.O.W.'s were perpetrating a hoax. "This process," he declaimed, "has been led by a certain number of charlatans and exploiters, and we should not allow fiction to cloud what we are trying to do here."

Kerry's resolution passed, by a vote of 62 to 38. Sadly for him, the passage of ten thousand resolutions cannot make up for wants in a man's character.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 2:10 PM -

ALEC Baldwin isn't suffering from any lack of self-esteem. In A&E's "Biography: Alec Baldwin," premiering tonight, the bombastic actor compares himself to Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, who wrote "Soul on Ice."

Baldwin recalls that when he was younger, "My dad said to me, 'If you were black . . . with your personality,' he said, 'Do you think you would be Martin Luther King, or would you be Eldridge Cleaver? Would you be patient and wise, and kind, and peaceful?' He said, 'Or do you think you'd really, really get out there and . . . exert yourself a little more in order to leverage change in our society?' And I knew the answer . . . I knew the answer was the latter."

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:09 AM -

Triangle tax firms are maneuvering to capture one market that never stopped booming.

They are moving offices into Latino grocery stores, dangling scholarships to lure Spanish-speaking job recruits, and papering Hispanic neighborhoods with handbills and coupons printed in Spanish. Volunteer tax preparers also are adding locations and interpreters to reach more low-income immigrants.

North Carolina had the fastest-growing foreign-born population in the United States in the 1990s. In Raleigh, the 2000 Census found 19,308 Hispanic residents, and the count has grown since, giving businesses a growth market even in a down economy.

Roman Acosta-Zuniga, 37, a construction worker from Honduras, followed a Spanish-language handbill and a nephew's recommendation to Liberty Tax Service's Wake Forest Road office, where he was filling out tax forms recently.

An interpreter at the office could relieve only so much of the hassle of wrestling with taxes. It's still a trial, Acosta said. But he was expecting a refund for his trouble.

He planned to send the money to Honduras, where he has four children.

Tax firms are increasingly reaching across the language gap to capitalize on this growth, despite complications of documentation and identity that snarled many returns for Hispanic taxpayers last year.
...
The custom of writing surnames with the mother's last name after the father's last name also leads to rejected filings, she said.

"Last year we learned the hard way to never, ever go by the name on the driver's license or W-2," Borthayre said.

It's been just an hour, but tax counselors at a recent IRS seminar at an immigrant community center have already seen 100 people and are facing an overflow crowd in the waiting room hoping for tax help.

These people aren't in a quandary over new tax laws or changes to the code. These are illegal immigrants who – up until today – have been using false social security numbers to work in the United States. Immigrants like them are flocking in record numbers to IRS offices and seminars such as this one to learn how to become legal US taxpayers.

The IRS has been quietly supporting this activity since 1996 when it created an individual taxpayer identification number designed for anyone who doesn't have a social security number.

This program has gained momentum as immigrants become aware of this option – and more fearless about their position in the US workforce.

It's an example of the tension over the growing acceptance of illegal immigrants in this country. While US Border Patrol agents play cat-and-mouse with those trying to enter the US illegally, other federal agencies are creating ways to accomodate the 7 million to 8 million illegal immigrants who are already here.

Some say the federal government's acceptance of this new tax ID number – as well its myriad other immigrant services, from education to health to housing – is a clear sign that the country has reached a certain comfortable level with illegal immigration from Latin America.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 11:20 PM -

Judi Dench, known to cinema audiences around the world as James Bond's spy chief "M," received a special award in recognition of her contribution to British theater.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:05 AM -

So the race has come down to a weak default candidate v a glamorous insurgent who is not quite glamorous to insurge sufficiently. Other than that, there is not much to choose between them. Both men are enormously wealthy. Kerry was a blueblood of relatively minor means who married a woman worth $300 million and then traded up to a woman worth $500 million. If I were Teresa Heinz Kerry I'd be worried, now Massachusetts is introducing gay marriage, that hubby may start giving the come-hither look to some of the state's elderly bachelor billionaires.

By contrast, John Edwards had a dirt-poor hard-scrabble childhood but managed to sue his way out of poverty. He has made 25 million bucks just from suing tobacco companies. His is an inspirational message: If I can do it, the rest of you haven't a hope in hell. But fortunately I've got a thousand new government programmes and micro-initiatives that will partially ameliorate your hopeless mediocrity. (I paraphrase.)

My favourite line in the Edwards spiel comes about two-thirds in, when, after outlining the regulatory hell in which he is going to ensnare banks, the pharmaceutical industry, etc, he confides: "But I'll be honest with you. I don't think I can change this country by myself." It's good to know the other 280 million Americans aren't entirely redundant. His basic pitch is that the entire electorate are victims, and his candidacy is the all-time biggest class-action suit on your behalf.

Edwards is condescending. Kerry is far too grand to condescend. But both are agreed that America is a vast wasteland of unemployed, shivering, diseased losers. For single-issue guys like me, Edwards barely says a word on Iraq and the war, though I am inclined to think he'd be better than Kerry. The latter seems eager to do whatever Chirac and Kofi want, whereas with Edwards there's always the possibility he will wind up suing the UN Security Council for emotional distress.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 7:04 PM -

Top brass flew to Baghdad with publicity-shy empowerment businessman

Two of the ANC's most powerful officials travelled to Iraq with a controversial Johannesburg businessman just weeks before he landed a R1.2-billion state oil deal.

Sandi Majali is one of about 270 people around the world who have been named in an alleged sanctions-busting scam involving oil from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.

The names appeared in Iraqi State Oil Marketing Organisation documents found after the fall of Saddam.

Majali, 41, who heads the media-shy empowerment company Imvume Resources, has for the past two weeks been reluctant to talk about his business dealings.

Barry Aaron, an attorney acting for Imvume and Majali, said his clients were precluded by a pending lawsuit from responding to questions.

The Sunday Times has established that Majali had close ties with former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and senior members of the ANC.

Majali accompanied ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe and the party's treasurer-general, Mendi Msimang, to the Middle East from November 9 to 17 2001. Just two weeks later, on December 1, the Iraqi government allocated Majali's company two million barrels of oil.

On December 5 2001, South Africa's Strategic Fuel Fund put out a R1.2-billion tender for four million barrels of Basrah Light oil. Majali's company snatched the deal.

The Sunday Times has uncovered several overseas trips on which Majali accompanied Motlanthe and Msimang. Imvume also paid a R40 000 bill in July 2002 for the ANC to host a dinner in Johannesburg for Aziz, who was in South Africa as a special guest of Deputy President Jacob Zuma.

Msimang said this week that the ANC had not helped Majali broker the oil deal and said there was "no special relationship" between them.

Msimang also said that Majali, "like all those who have the interests of the country at heart", had made "contributions" to the ANC, although Motlanthe denied any knowledge of any such contributions.

The Sunday Times has established that Imvume is owned by "charitable" trusts and unnamed businessmen.

One of the owners is the Research and Security Development Trust, founded in June 2001 with a symbolic donation of R1 000 from Daniel Lengosane - now a director of Internal Security in the President's Office.

Motlanthe this week confirmed that he had accompanied Majali to Iraq at least twice. "My job as the ANC secretary-general is to do party-to-party negotiations to strengthen our relationships with other parties.

"We had a good relationship with the Baath party in Iraq."

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 10:31 AM -

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:42 AM -

If a new class action lawsuit forces Anheuser-Busch Inc. and Miller Brewing Co. to pay billions of dollars in damages for alleged marketing to underage drinkers, it will be because the nation's two largest brewers were linked with an advertising icon-turned-villain: Joe Camel.

That animated figure became a potent symbol of Big Tobacco's selling of cigarettes to minors and was dropped as the result of a lawsuit. Now, Anheuser-Busch and Miller face claims that TV ads starring cartoon frogs that croak "Bud . . . weis . . . er," the introduction of malt-based drinks with sweetened citrus flavors, and other actions are proof of a concerted marketing effort aimed at people younger than 21.

"This is about pitching your product expressly or implicitly to underage people," said Robert Carey, an attorney with the Hagens Berman law firm, which filed the suit earlier this month in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The Seattle-based firm has built a reputation as one of the nation's top tobacco litigators.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:33 AM -

NORTHFIELD, MINN. -- Former President Jimmy Carter delivered a Saturday sermon to a standing-room-only crowd at St. Olaf College, condemning the American people as much as their leaders for what he called their indifference to the disease and despair that prevail in much of the developing world.

He was greeted with foot-stomping rapture, applauded not only in the college's Skoglund Center gymnasium but again in the lobby by audience members who disobeyed a request and sneaked outside to watch him be escorted to his car.

He said he believes that the Bush administration has squandered the opportunity offered by the global outpouring of goodwill after Sept. 11, and it now needs to exit Iraq with as much dignity as it can manage, while remaining responsible for the security of that nation's people.

Although Carter is remembered for his emphasis on human rights and peace, he also emphasized, in a question that challenged him on the need to maintain military strength to maintain peace, that he is a veteran. Indeed, among presidents since the Civil War, he said, he ranks second only to Dwight Eisenhower, supreme Allied commander in Europe in World War II, for his number of years of military service.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 9:15 AM -