Mexico, December 4 2007

MexicoReporter: One of Mexico’s leading human rights activists, Lydia Cacho, has been denied justice by the Supreme Court. Cacho published a book exposing a pedophile ring run by a leading businessman under the protection of Puebla Governor Mario Marin. Cacho was arrested without charges and threatened with rape and other forms of torture. Her lawsuit was upheld by a commission of the Supreme Court, but invalidated by the full court on the grounds that an incriminating phone call had been improperly recorded.

Viva ::cough:: Mexico.

NIE: Bush Is Full Of Crap WRT Iran.

We knew this years ago (at least the IAEA did), but it’s nice to see America’s intelligence agencies officially break free from Bush’s propaganda:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.

Remember, Iran is allowed under the Non-Proliferation Treaty to have nuclear energy for domestic purposes, such as power plants. The amount of fissionable material needed for power generation is much, much smaller than that needed for weapons-making.

Oh, and the whole reason the Iranians have a nuclear program? We gave it to them, twice — first in the 1950s, as part of the “Atoms for Peace” program under Eisenhower, and again under Ford in the 1970s:

In 1976, the Shah of Iran came to the United States, sent his representatives to intercede and say, “Look, we’ve done an analysis, and we’ve got a finite amount of oil. And right now we need to export it. And if we don’t export it, we don’t make money, etc. We don’t have enough oil to sustain this. We need to come up with an indigenous energy policy that frees up our oil for exportation. We want to use nuclear energy.” And the U.S. government went, “Good idea, Shah. We’re all for it.” That was Gerald Ford.

The chief of staff of the White House at the time was Dick Cheney. The Secretary of Defense was Donald Rumsfeld. So, this argument that both Cheney and Rumsfeld put out today that Iran is a nation awash in a sea of oil, there is no need for a nuclear energy program, they both supported Iran’s goals of achieving nuclear energy in 1976. Not only nuclear energy, but they also supported the Shah when he said, “We cannot allow a nuclear energy program’s fuel to be held hostage by the vagaries of sanctions and war. We need an indigenous fuel-manufacturing capability inclusive of the full uranium enrichment process.” And guess what the U.S. government said in 1976. “No problem, Shah. Good deal.” Of course, in 1979, the Islamists come in and suddenly we change our opinion. The bottom line is, Iran has every right legally to a nuclear energy program, and economically, we’ve already deemed it a responsible way to go.

The Reason for the Season

The theme of this year’s White House Christmas decorations is National Parks.

The Flight 93 National Monument is, officially, a national park, so it is included among the tree ornaments. Which in itself is not inappropriate, but…

I am officially appalled.

Trade imbalance may be insoluble problem

Mure Dickie, FT:

China’s soaring trade surplus with the US has “very little to do” with an undervalued renminbi, and faster appreciation of the currency, though welcome, would be “no panacea”, according to a new report [by the US-based Conference Board]…

“Although an undervalued currency contributes to China’s trade surplus, it is not a primary cause of it and has very little to do with the bilateral United States-China trade deficit,” it added.

The report said that extraordinary growth in productivity had been the main driver of Chinese competitiveness, creating profits that companies pour back into investment that in turn leads to greater profits….

In a separate report, Conference Board researchers found that labour productivity in large and medium Chinese industrial enterprises grew at an “astounding” annual rate of 20.4 per cent between 1995 and 2003.

Napoleon’s characterization of China as a sleeping tiger comes to mind.

What this is saying is that the dollar can fall and fall, and we still won’t be able to compete. Why? Because we need to get our own house in order, and we don’t have any national leaders to help us do so. Just a bunch of terminally greedy Republihogs and terminally prissy Democrats.

Oh, and Ralph “There’s no difference between Bush and Gore” Nader.

The Ron Paul Juggernaut

Just as Ron Paul won the recent Minnesota GOP straw poll, he won one taken at a Virginia Republican function, too.

I’m looking forward to seeing him go third party when he loses in the primaries next spring. He’ll take away enough Republican voters to let even Kucinich win.  As for those who think he’ll take away more progs than cons:  Not when they see him do charmingly racist, anti-American stuff like this — stuff that is a hallmark of modern Republican campaigning.