Spanish is the Loving Thumbs...

Paul Krugman
Ron Paul

"The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment, it is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, when they do what they do, you have more carbon dioxide." - John Boehner

Uranium and arsenic are also naturally occurring. Does that means its okay to dump them on Boehner's front lawn? - richard m

"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."-MLK, Jr.

"I'm grateful that President Ortega did not blame me for things that happened when I was three months old" - Barack Obama

Events are moving quickly, the NY Times reported that Iran is ready to make use of their political pawn: "The head of Iran’s judiciary said Monday that he had ordered the “careful, quick and fair” consideration of an appeal against the eight-year jail sentence imposed on an Iranian-American journalist, one day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged the chief prosecutor to reexamine the case.

Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Iran’s highest judge, issued a decree to the head of the Tehran court, calling on the appeal to be “considered at the appeals stage in a careful, quick and fair way,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported." So it does look like Roxana Serbi may be released soon, it all depends on what backroom deal is made, say the US complementing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad one week before the June elections...

Besides, Ahmadinejad has his hands full, after being booed and ridiculed at a UN conference on racism, one that the US declined to attend. It's been thought that this conference was just going to be a big dumping on Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians. The Current policy is to close their eyes, click their heels three times, and wish that the Palestinians would just go away...

Which is pretty much the global policy of countries towards their indigenous peoples, from Australia to Peru. Here in the US we have to give our native people credit for adapting to whatever Godforsaken Hellhole we send them to... In Latin America, they have a time honored tradition of rebelling against US imperialism, wanting to have the opportunity of decimating their own native populations without outside help, thank you...

This last weekend we found President Obama in Trinidad for a summit of the Americas, and a chance to change the decades old attitudes of our neighbors to the South. As USA Today puts it: "For decades, governments from Cuba to Nicaragua have served up anti-American rhetoric as a daily ration to supplement the paltry fare on many families' tables. It is deeply ingrained in the continent's psyche.

At the summit, for instance, Chavez handed Obama a book chronicling five centuries of meddling in Latin America by foreign powers, including the United States. Such intervention is a fact, and has been to the detriment of the region. But a far bigger detriment has been the many populist uprisings, repressive and corrupt governments, Marxist revolutions, and cult-like rulers from the Perons in Argentina to Fidel Castro in Cuba to Chavez himself. To understand their impact, you need only know that a century ago, Argentina had per capital wealth rivaling that of the U.S. They diverged for internal reasons, but that is a circumstance that no struggling nation can easily acknowledge."

In response, the GOP is trying to portray Obama's polite behavior as a weakness. From Politico: "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tore into President Barack Obama Monday for his friendly greeting of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying Obama is bolstering the "enemies of America.”

“Frankly, this does look a lot like Jimmy Carter. Carter tried weakness, and the world got tougher and tougher, because the predators, the aggressors, the anti-Americans, the dictators – when they sense weakness, they all start pushing ahead,” Gingrich said on “Fox & Friends.”

Judd Gregg told MSNBC's Morning Joe Monday that while Chavez is "not a strategic threat,” Obama’s greeting of him is “not a good way to start your presidency."

And Ensign called Chavez "one of the most anti-American leaders in the entire world. He is a brutal dictator and human rights violations are very, very prevalent in Venezuela. And you have to be careful.”

Gingrich first raised the issue on Friday, the night Obama and Chavez first met at a reception.

“I think it sends a terrible signal to all of Latin America, and a terrible signal about how the new administration regards dictators,” Gingrich said on Fox, also citing Obama’s willingness to talk to Iran, his handling of North Korea and overtures to the Castro government in Cuba. “I don’t think there’s any downside to talking to him. But I think being friends, taking a picture that clearly looks like they’re buddies hurts in all of Latin America.”

Wow, a lot of quotes, especially from Gingrich, now known as the Ugly American, who feels that he had better be getting as much air time as possible if he wants to become the frontrunner for the GOP nomination in 2012. What might Obama counter to all of this?

"Obama addressed such criticism before he left the summit in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday, noting his “great differences” with Chavez and expressing concern for the Venezuelan president’s “inflammatory” rhetoric toward the United States and interference in neighboring Latin American countries

“It's unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr. Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States,” Obama told reporters at a news conference. “I don't think anybody can find any evidence that that would do so. Even within this imaginative crowd, I think you would be hard-pressed to paint a scenario in which U.S. interests would be damaged as a consequence of us having a more constructive relationship with Venezuela.”

Also, at the end of the summit, Obama had this to say about the by now famous handshake: “We had this debate throughout the campaign, and the whole notion was, is that somehow if we showed courtesy or opened up dialogue with governments that had previously been hostile to us, that that somehow would be a sign of weakness – the American people didn't buy it,” Obama said. “And there's a good reason the American people didn't buy it — because it doesn't make sense.”

USA Today sums it up: "As is the case with previous efforts in other parts of the world, it remains to be seen what tangible results can be achieved with this softer sell. But Latin America could be the perfect place to try it out.

The region has no countries like North Korea or Iran that present serious threats to world peace. Two of its thorniest issues affecting the U.S. drugs and illegal immigration can be addressed in large measure through what Latin Americans want most: economic growth. And, if Obama can successfully change the image of the United States in the region, its most repressive regimes would have a harder time passing off their self-inflicted economic problems as the result of some variant of Yankee imperialism.

But that will not come naturally.

I'm not sure where I got this next quote, as I erased the rest of the article, but it sums things up nicely: "This, as much as Obama’s persuasive communication skills, political acumen, strong advisers and appealing positions, may explain why the president remains so popular and Republicans so unpopular.

It often takes a party some time after losing an election to regain its political sea legs. Some smart Republican politicians profess not to be worried now, as long as they can provide more coherent resistance by this summer."

Late night jokes should resume tomorrow...

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