If Only They Could All Vote

posted by Peter Rothberg on 10/01/2008 @ 1:03pm

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The outcome of the presidential race -- as well as the resolution of the economic crisis -- will have major implications around the world. So the Economist magazine has decided to poll the world, country-by-country, to try to get a sense of where the globe stands on the US presidential contest.

Using a nifty new online tool that goes so far as to redraw the electoral map, all 195 of the world's countries (including the US) are given a say in the election's outcome. As in America, each country has been allocated a minimum of three electoral-college votes with extra votes provided in proportion to population size. With over 6.5 billion people enfranchised, the result is a much larger electoral college of 9,875 votes.

The results to date are somewhat astonishing – Obama is leading McCain by a landslide of 8,192 electoral votes to 3! The only country in the world voting for McCain is Andorra! If only Economist readers ruled the world! Seriously though, it is interesting that the readers of the free-market bible of the English-speaking world are so overwhelmingly in support of Obama. Check out the map and cast your vote. Voting in the Global Electoral College closes at midnight on November 1st.

Comments (112)

PANAMA DICE:

OBAMA/BIDEN "SI" EL HIJO DE PUTA/LA BOBA "NO"

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 1:11pm
Which indicates...nothing. Move along nothing to see here.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/01/2008 @ 1:12pm
Oh, PETER, come on...

you know this kind of stuff is just chum bait to our local right-wingers.

BTW, McCain says he'll form new coalitions and work closer with our allies...those same xenophobes will of course set aside their "F**k the world" and suddenly become internationalists.

or if we bring up the reasons for invading Iraq, they'll use "17 UNITED NATIONS resolutions violated"...

and two hours later tell us why the UN is irrelevant!

Regardless....here it comes....

Posted by Maskdelta at 10/01/2008 @ 1:14pm
So?

I've spent donkey's years abroad. Most foreigners know from shinola.

And that applies to most foreigners, aka Americans, as they observe another country.

Nice try, Peter, but no cigar for the Economist, just out to sell copies in the non-Anglo outer lands.

Posted by sloper at 10/01/2008 @ 1:27pm
Not to mention ....

The "rest of the world" is such a great place to live.

Count the thousands leaving the US everyday for a better life elsewhere.

The Cuban healthcare system..

The Arab judical system...

The return on your money in Zimbabwe..

Where's the new Ellis Island?

Posted by bleedingheart at 10/01/2008 @ 1:28pm
@ So?

I've spent donkey's years abroad. Most foreigners know from shinola.

And that applies to most foreigners, aka Americans, as they observe another country.

Nice try, Peter, but no cigar for the Economist, just out to sell copies in the non-Anglo outer lands.

Posted by sloper at 10/01/2008 @ 1:27pm

Que va gringo de mierda? Tu que sabes?

If "foreigners don't know shit from shinola," please drop some knowledge on me, but first show me what you about the issues. NO CHEATING.

(1) What would you do to place a value on a Collateralized Mortgage Debt Obligation security on 1500 mortgages on a series of new luxury develpments in Orange County, CA, which carry an average term of 25-years, fixed-rate at 7.5%, purchased through an intermediate party in receivership, which was sold to you with a USD European Put Option kicker at 50% of par?

(2) Why did the US Dollar gain and Gas prices at the pump fall throught the period of the US bank crisis being front page news but reverse upon discussions of a bailout?

(3) Which is larger the NASDAQ and NYSE or the Sterling/Cable plain vanilla interest rate swap market?

(4) Who is more of a fiscal and monetary conservative, George W Bush or Hugo Chavez?

(5) Why is a swap a portfolio of forward rates?

(6) Please name every US Senator by state, indicating Jr or Sr status.

(7) How many Full Admirals have there been in US History?

(8) What were the terms of the Lousiana Purchase?

(9) Who is Israel's head-of-state?

(10) What is "monetary neutrality"?

(11) Who comprise the Congressional delegation of your home state?

(12) Describe the issues involved in Lincoln's decision to enagage the CSA and why is that like the ADF court challenge to the IRS?

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 1:51pm
You all woke up on the wrong side of the bed today -- just thought this thing was cute. I'm not inputting any great meaning to it! But I did think it interesting that the readers of the free-market bible of the English-speaking world are so overwhelmingly in support of Obama.

Posted by Peter Rothberg at 10/01/2008 @ 1:56pm
(13) What is the difference between an orange?

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 1:58pm
(1) What would you do to place a value on a Collateralized Mortgage Debt Obligation security on 1500 mortgages on a series of new luxury develpments in Orange County, CA, which carry an average term of 25-years, fixed-rate at 7.5%, purchased through an intermediate party in receivership, which was sold to you with a USD European Put Option kicker at 50% of par?

••• talk to the lorax. he speaks for the trees.

(2) Why did the US Dollar gain and Gas prices at the pump fall throught the period of the US bank crisis being front page news but reverse upon discussions of a bailout?

••• because the "market" is a mirage.....

(3) Which is larger the NASDAQ and NYSE or the Sterling/Cable plain vanilla interest rate swap market?

••• god forbids usury.

(4) Who is more of a fiscal and monetary conservative, George W Bush or Hugo Chavez?

••• commie.

(5) Why is a swap a portfolio of forward rates?

••• hey, the swingers forum is on another site.

(6) Please name every US Senator by state, indicating Jr or Sr status.

••• bernie sanders, the only one who counts.

(7) How many Full Admirals have there been in US History?

••• enough to bankrupt the treasury.

(8) What were the terms of the Lousiana Purchase?

••• bad for the indians.

(9) Who is Israel's head-of-state?

••• chaos.

(10) What is "monetary neutrality"?

••• living from paycheque to paycheque.

(11) Who comprise the Congressional delegation of your home state?

••• nobody. at least not yet.

(12) Describe the issues involved in Lincoln's decision to enagage the CSA and why is that like the ADF court challenge to the IRS?

••• who is abbey lincoln?

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 1:51pm

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:05pm
"If Only They Could All Vote"

hey, i've got about 10 proxy voters.

people who said they would not vote but now are going to.......

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:06pm
Mr Rothenberg:

I'm sorry.

American jingoism, xenophobia and disrepect, however, for the rest of us and what we know or don't know is very offensive to me.

I'm not an American but I keep myself aware of the issues and history of the US. I try to do the same for as many countries as I can.

My approach to keeping myself informed is common outside the US and is part of the reason you are observing the results you are in this poll.

It gets wearying after a while being lectured about "freedom" and "democracy" by people from a country that can't manage its own economy and looks to the rest of us to lend it money to spread its violence around in a non-colonial age.

9/11, for example, is an excuse for nothing. Colin Powell dropped three 9/11s on us in Panama for no good reason and despite the destruction and devastation to bring one jerk up on white collar charges, people could see that the first president Bush was willing to make amends later, so we held no grudge.

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 2:09pm
Hey, disn't the Framers fight for "no representation without taxation" or something?

Posted by Mistral at 10/01/2008 @ 2:11pm
The "rest of the world" is such a great place to live.

Posted by bleedingheart at 10/01/2008 @ 1:28pm

that's right.

if you are happy in your heart,

have employment and respect,

then almost anywhere is a great place.

i'd rather live in xalapa than gary.

i'd rather live in santiago de cuba than in a neighbourhood populated by jerks like you.

the u.s. is a beautiful place. beaufort s.c. would be nice. but perfection only exists in mathematics.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:12pm
But I did think it interesting that the readers of the free-market bible of the English-speaking world are so overwhelmingly in support of Obama.

Posted by Peter Rothberg at 10/01/2008 @ 1:56pm

we're hopin', peter.

crossin' our toes.....

so many years of many fist destiny.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:13pm
Hey, disn't the Framers fight for "no representation without taxation" or something?

Posted by Mistral ---------

Reminds me of the Monty Python man-on-the-street interview where the interviewee said, 'I favor increasing taxes on all foreigners living abroad.'

Posted by HonestLiberal at 10/01/2008 @ 2:15pm
can other countries use absentee ballots and vote early??? if so, they need to do so immediately..

if the race is close, the GOP will steal it like 2000 in which bush never won the popular election, only the electoral college in a state where his brother was governor and katherine harris controlled the outcome....

in regards to oil drilling, if we open up all shores to drilling (by the way, palin's state of alaska is already opened totally to unlimited drilling and she just signed a new bill for thousands of miles of new pipelines) it will amount to 3% of energy needs...

In 1970 we imported 24% of petroleum, now it is 80%.....

resulting in a net outflow of $700 billion dollars a year!!!!!!

if a bailout is needed, it is to bailout our foreign energy independence...

the most recent bailout should fail too since republicans are now trying to blackmail democrats by blocking alternative energy tax credits which, unlike limitless oil and gas subsidies and tax breaks, are only renewed yearly under bush....

McCain is a liar, and Palin doesn't even believe in global warming....

look it up yourself or watch her latest interview.....

if you live overseas and are a US citizen....

VOTE NOW!!!

in this country appearance trumps reality and media is not to be trusted...

if obama has been perceived to have already won by Nov 6th...all the gop spin in the world won't be able to save their failed policies and campaign...

Posted by jrs112 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:20pm
Hey, HonestLiberal, how come you only respomd to me?

Posted by Mistral at 10/01/2008 @ 2:23pm
i'd rather live in santiago de cuba than in a neighbourhood populated by jerks like you. the u.s. is a beautiful place. beaufort s.c. would be nice. but perfection only exists in mathematics. Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:12pm |

Hear, hear.

And Santiago de Cuba has some wonderful neighborhoods as well as many lovely people.

Posted by sloper at 10/01/2008 @ 2:23pm
whoa!

336 obama

202 mccain.......

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:29pm
Because everybody else just gives me snarky snippets of scarcasm. I'd really like to talk to more people in person. In person, people are better behaved; on blogs they're just like people on the Expressway giving each other the finger.

Posted by HonestLiberal at 10/01/2008 @ 2:30pm
hey, darin.

n.c. is now rated at neutral/lean obama......

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:32pm
Hmm. I hate the L.I.E.

Posted by Mistral at 10/01/2008 @ 2:33pm
@ But I did think it interesting that the readers of the free-market bible of the English-speaking world are so overwhelmingly in support of Obama.

Posted by Peter Rothberg at 10/01/2008 @ 1:56pm

Peter, let me explain something to you but I need you to stop thinking like an American for ONE MOMENT. I read The Economist and I prefer Obama and I am in finance, but I don't AGREE with The Economist's point of view at all on the way to achieve market-based self-governing societies. They still want to find the Pinochet in every country who will crush any dissenting voices so the same way America practices capitalism can take hold in every other country.

It's hardly a question of anybody in the world financial community finding a kindred spirit in Obama. And certainly not in McCain. We like Obama's intelligence and CALM. His social views would be too extreme Right for the rest of the Western world and his economic views are too naive. And nobody ever liked the IMF and World Bank messing around in privatizing people's DRINKING WATER! Are you crazy, man?

McCain has made his view of American expectionalism and his view of the folkways of one sub-sect of one Christian church being the guiding principles of the USA. Obama has flirted with some of this, too, no doubt. Obama needs to pander to some of this to get elected and maybe he believes some of it. Time will tell.

The rest of the Western world has shown you that you can have single-payer health, separation of church and state, collective bargaining rights, various civil liberties and civil rights' assured, with a market-based economy, but nothing happens without sound fiscal management and sound currency. US Wars disrupt economic management in the US and help economic management elsewhere.

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 2:39pm
Because everybody else just gives me snarky snippets of scarcasm. I'd really like to talk to more people in person. In person, people are better behaved; on blogs they're just like people on the Expressway giving each other the finger.

Posted by HonestLiberal at 10/01/2008

hey, what have i ever said to you.

sure, after 17,546,345,787,576435,54,55 quotes with no input i may have gotten frustrated,

but dude, i've never meant you harm.

just trying to pry you from your quote, unquote shell.......

welcome to earth.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:39pm
Hmm. I hate the L.I.E.

Posted by Mistral at 10/01/2008 @ 2:33pm

i hate when people get pissed off at me when i refuse to accelerate to a red light.

oh, well...

expressways are an expressride to a coronary.

take the slow road. save gas.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:41pm
messing around in privatizing people's DRINKING WATER!

the real thing.....

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:42pm
We like Obama's intelligence and CALM.

amen. finally.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:43pm
but nothing happens without sound fiscal management and sound currency.

what, as a panamanian i'd think you'd want rubber markets to expand....

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:44pm
¿conoces el chicozapote?

mmmmm...

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:45pm
US Wars disrupt economic management in the US and help economic management elsewhere.

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 2:39pm

if you've got "money" to lend....

i eat.

pasta, rice, beans.

damn!

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 2:47pm
Frosty, please give me a minute to post a lengthy --but completely worthwhile post from Glen Ford and his Black Agenda Report.

:D

Thanks,

~BK

Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:49pm
"Mr Rothenberg"

~posted by Dexter Manley

Would that be "Rottenberg ob der Tauber"?

--It is a cute tourist destination.

And would you be the former lineman for the Redskins nicknamed the "secretary of defense"?

--He was an interesting character in any case (and lives in DC these days, not Panama).

But I digress. Loved the post, Peter.

:D

But I reprint here a more potent posting from the esteemed Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report:

Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:50pm
FROSTY:

Olvide contarte que tus respuestas me dieron mucha risa. Muy bien hecho!

Bernie Sanders? Si, viejo! A mi me encanta el senador judio este. Tiene agallas, si o pa' que? Tambien me encanta el representate Dennis Kucinich. Me parecia que Kucinich gano todos sus debates democraticos y Ron Paul gano todo ellos de los republicanos. Pero que se yo?

How's Canada going to vote in this thing?

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 2:50pm
The Last Hold Up By GLEN FORD

In their role as mercenaries in service of finance capital, three-fifths of Democrats joined one-third of Republicans in a (temporarily) failed heist of $700 billion of the people's funds - a nest-egg the public needs to hold onto to weather the unfolding collapse of the Lords of Capital. In the aftermath of Monday's bloody siege, it was difficult to tell who Wall Street guns-for-hire John McCain and Barack Obama hated most: each other, or the citizens who despite their outraged confusion had the presence of mind to bar the doors to the national treasury.

Understandably disoriented from having had to charge backwards - pretending to lead the people while simultaneously assaulting them - Obama peered across the field at the hastily-erected barricades that had broken Hank Paulson's Charge. "I'm confident we're going to get there," said the frustrated thief-enabler, "but it's going to be rocky." To paraphrase Oscar Brown, Jr., "What you mean WE, Obama-man?"

The Illinois senator and his pretend-opponents in the other business party just had their colluding asses kicked by the most motley, disorganized crew imaginable: the American public, who bombarded their legislators with threats of retaliation in November if they bowed to Wall Street's extortionist demands.

Never has Republican-Democratic co-subservience to finance capital been on such naked display. But then, "We the People" have never before been witness to the terminal unraveling of late-stage global finance capital. When the New York Times features no less than three articles declaring the nation's investment bankers ready for burial, as did last Sunday's paper, it is time for the Democrats, especially, to find another paymaster.

Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:50pm
Black Caucus Split

Obama's party is wedded to Wall Street. At the local level the Democrats have long been the party of "developers" - the money bags who shape urban policy to fit the needs of corporations. These gentrifiers are the "Renaissance Men" that insist black politicians earn their campaign and graft payments by helping to expel their own constituents from the cities, so as to make them more congenial to business. Betrayal starts at home. So it's not surprising to find Rep. Charles Rangel (NY), the corporate-loving Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, among the 18 members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to vote with the Bush-McCain-Obama Wall Street axis. Edolphus Towns (NY), Gregory Meeks (NY), and Artur Davis (AL) are also in their element, reeking as they do of corporate contributions. However, it is strange - and sad - to see Maxine Waters (CA), Gwen Moore (WI) and other relatively progressive members aligned with the rump end of the Black Caucus.

Among the slim, 21-member majority of the CBC that defied Speaker Nancy Pelosi's edicts, one finds more curious company. Voting alongside usually reliable progressives such as Barbara Lee (CA), John Conyers (MI), Donna Edwards (MD) and Bobby Scott (VA), are some of the Caucus's most rightwing members: William "Dollar Bill" Jefferson (LA) and David Scott (GA), once described as the "Worst Black Congressman" in the House. Panic makes strange bedfellows. Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott summed up the "No" position: "There's no point in spending all this money on worthless assets" such as toxic mortgages. Detroit's Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick said of the Paulson plan, "This helps the banks in their book of mortgages. It doesn't help the little person who needs it."

Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:50pm
These are eminently good reasons to resist the bipartisan, flag-waving, hyper-ventilating and increasingly ill-looking Wall Street mob, now regrouping for another bum-rush of the Congress. However, the anxious thieves are only a 12-vote switch away from consummating the Greatest Theft Ever. Pelosi's wing of the Business Party is confident they can assemble the blandishments and threats to do the trick.

The Last Hold-up

The criminal-minded and mortally wounded Lords of Capital believed, as Pam Martens has written, that they could "loot and collapse a 200-year old financial system and...be rewarded with a fresh $700 billion of public money to disperse among your cronies who aided and abetted in the collapse."

Or, as Mike Whitney puts it:

"...the $700 billion is just part of a massive ‘pump and dump' scheme engineered with the tacit approval of the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Once the banksters have offloaded their fraudulent securities and crappy paper on Uncle Sam, they will do whatever they need to do to pad the bottom line and drive their stocks up. That means they will shovel capital into hard assets, foreign currencies, gold, interest rate swaps, carry trade swindles, and Swiss bank accounts. The notion that they will recapitalize so they can provide loans to US consumers and businesses in a slumping economy is a pipedream."

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and his designated wrecking crew have but one objective: theft. Their own world is doomed - "The system is de-leveraging and nothing can stop it," says Whitney - so they are pulling off one last, mega-heist before it sinks beneath the waves.

The rest of us must fashion new institutions to perform the societal tasks that were purportedly the domain of the now-extinct investment bankers:

Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:50pm
to gather large amounts of capital for projects of social value - for example, a Marshall-type Plan for the cities, a nationwide infrastructure makeover, and fulfillment of the 70-year old federal commitment to provide truly affordable housing for everyone. And of course, jobs, jobs, jobs.

We have many other uses for that $700 billion - what Barack Obama called "our last bullet," although intending to make it a gift to mega-thieves - for instance, to provide relief to current and future homeowner (and rental) victims of the housing bubble that will take years to fully deflate, as prices (and rents) decrease to levels consistent with wages and other social factors.

In a perverse way, Henry Paulson and his co-conspirators have done the public a great favor. He has told us that, Yes, the federal government can come up with $700-plus billion, in an instant, if the health of the nation demands it. He has expanded the fiscal scope of the domestic political debate, so that it may encompass projects of transformational size. Never again can the corporate class speak of socially valuable projects being so large as to "break the bank" or the budget. Popular forces are now free to think large, too, without being ridiculed from the corporate Right.

The demise of finance capital's premiere institutions, and the brutal arrogance with which their servants moved to strip the commonweal of every squeezable drop of cash, has alerted vast sectors of the citizenry to the reality of capitalism-in-crisis in ways that no amount of Left agitation could have accomplished.

Technical public "ownership" of previously "private" institutions has been thrust upon us by the capitalists, themselves. But this is merely an opening for the great debates and struggles that must follow.

Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:51pm
Power does not devolve to "the people" by simple virtue of majority shares in failing institutions or even outright nationalization. And "the people" have no need of institutions that serve no purpose but as creatures of capital.

The second casualty of the current crisis, after the collapse of the financial sector, is surely the twin-party game of musical chairs that served to legitimize the rule of capital. The obscenity of a Democrat-Republican syndicate arrayed against the roaring, raging sentiments of citizens of all self-described political persuasions, cannot be erased from the collective national memory - even if congressional party leaders succeed in whipping their members into line, later this week.

When catastrophe hits, radicals must be ready. Recent events have proven Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente to be amazingly prescient in their belief that the Green Party can be - I emphasize can be - a vehicle for presenting and popularizing a truly transformational program for social change. (See McKinney "The Financial Crisis: Seize the Time!" BAR September 24.) McKinney and Clemente always intended that the Green Party become a nexus for the roiling social currents set in motion by the decomposition of ruling class institutions. The Democratic and Republican Parties, creatures of capital, are decomposing in full view, as witnessed by the events of this week. As the crisis deepens, the parties will crack - at a pace dictated by the increasing frequency of convulsions.

When we are confronted with the surreal spectacle of John McCain and Barack Obama attempting to destroy each other even as they rush to deliver nearly a trillion dollars to the same master, while the people scream at both of them to "Stop!" - we know that "change" is coming.

Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:51pm
But not the kind the Democrats or Republicans anticipate.

Glen Ford is executive editor of Black Agenda Report, where this article also appears. He can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.

Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:51pm
Welcome aboard, Dexter.

And my apologies --and many others here in the States as well I'm sure-- for the incompetent foreign policy including so-called Operation "Just Cause".

:-(

Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:53pm
Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 1:51pm

The quote was, "Most foreigners know from shinola."

The key word, which you dropped, was "most". The universe of people that need to know or do know how to value securities based on a particular type of mortgage, all the Senators by state or every Representative by Congressional district in their state is minute - and such knowledge has very little to do with being able to assess who might be a good President.

So, what exactly is your point here? That an occasional foreigner might have taken more interest than a typical American in looking at the political situation in the U.S.? Perhaps. But actually living somewhere means you know more about what's important than so-called experts that live somewhere else.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/01/2008 @ 3:04pm
Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 2:50pm

Excellent work.

I'm a huge NFL fan and he had one of the great football names of all time.

Even though I'm a NYG (and NYJ) fan I always liked Dexter Manley.

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 3:10pm
"i'd rather live in santiago de cuba than in a neighbourhood populated by jerks like you."

I live in your neighbourhood....

Posted by bleedingheart at 10/01/2008 @ 3:20pm
Because everybody else just gives me snarky snippets of scarcasm. I'd really like to talk to more people in person.------Posted by HonestLiberal at 10/01/2008

I'm sorry? Is this from the same poster who's 99% contribution are snarky QUOTES, many sarcastic?!!?!?!???

And you can quote me on that!

heheh

Posted by Maskdelta at 10/01/2008 @ 3:21pm
@@ In a perverse way, Henry Paulson and his co-conspirators have done the public a great favor. He has told us that, Yes, the federal government can come up with $700-plus billion, in an instant, if the health of the nation demands it. He has expanded the fiscal scope of the domestic political debate, so that it may encompass projects of transformational size. Never again can the corporate class speak of socially valuable projects being so large as to "break the bank" or the budget. Popular forces are now free to think large, too, without being ridiculed from the corporate Right.

I really like this point and it goes to so much of what I was writing in response to Peter Rothenburg. I look at South America and I see a wide variety of governing styles from the social-democracies of Chavez, Morales, and Correa, to the Center-left pro-business/pro-labor balance of Torrijos, Bachelet, Lula da Silva, and Fernandez de Kirchner, to the Modern Right of Uribe, to the far right of Garcia and there's one thing all have in common. All are good economic managers and even the worst of them have social policies and budgetary priorities way more compassionate and progressive than Obama's, let alone McCain's.

So, in some senses it's silly for me to argue here with Americans because my orietation is different. I have nothing but admiration for Barbara Lee for being the first national figure to say "NO WAY!"

I'm a capitalist to be sure, but my views on war and peace and social justice are way more like yours, b_kool_66.

Thanks for kind words about Operation "Just Cause". Nicest thing about that I've ever read by an American on the blogs. I don't blame you, buddy. Don't worry!

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 3:27pm
Me parecia que Kucinich gano todos sus debates democraticos y Ron Paul gano todo ellos de los republicanos. Pero que se yo?

••• i agree. but what do i know.

How's Canada going to vote in this thing?

••• canadians overwhelmingly pick obama.

yet viceroy harper may even get a majority......

go figure.

i'm hoping that the other parties will have enough votes to form a coalition and stop "mr" harper's push to turn us into a fear based state......

http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2008/09/20089512343643472.html

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 2:50pm

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 3:28pm
Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 3:27pm

Peace.

And thanks for the props.

:-)

Posted by b_kool_66 at 10/01/2008 @ 3:32pm
"Because everybody else just gives me snarky snippets of scarcasm."

Posted by HonestLiberal at 10/01/2008 @ 2:30pm

"everybody else"?

poetic license?

baloney.

grouch.

Posted by Benchrest at 10/01/2008 @ 3:53pm
"n.c. is now rated at neutral/lean obama......"

I don't doubt Obama wins, BUT he won't win NC.

Posted by bleedingheart at 10/01/2008 @ 3:56pm
Yo, Dexter, tell us, por favor, for what reason(s) did daddy Bush invade Panama? and kidnap Pineapple Face. and does anyone know for sure what happened to that character, once enveloped in the night & fog of the US gulag?

Just curious.

Posted by sloper at 10/01/2008 @ 4:15pm
I don't doubt Obama wins, BUT he won't win NC.----Posted by bleedingheart at 10/01/2008 @ 3:56pm

He doesn't have to. All he has to do is SCARE McCain that he MIGHT lose NC and force him to spent time (which he doesn't have) or CASH (which he REALLY doesn't have)....protecting it.

That cuts into time and money he can spend elsewhere.

Plus...no, it's NOT impossible for Obama to win NC. NAFTA and GATT have taken a mighty toll on that state in textiles, furniture, even fiber optics.

Posted by Maskdelta at 10/01/2008 @ 4:18pm
@ Yo, Dexter, tell us, por favor, for what reason(s) did daddy Bush invade Panama? and kidnap Pineapple Face. and does anyone know for sure what happened to that character, once enveloped in the night & fog of the US gulag?

Just curious.

Posted by sloper at 10/01/2008 @ 4:15pm

I think you already know the answers but I'm happy to take all the Republican heat here.

Omar Torrijos was elected president around the time Jimmy Carter was in office in the US. Torrijos (father of our current president) was the first progressive president of Panama. He and Carter signed the treaty that gave Panama control of the canal. Torrijos was assassinated some say by US forces because of this or because they feared "losing" Latin America.

At any rate when Reagan was elected he did not recognize fully the Carter-Torrijos treaty in terms of sovereignty but because the canal revenues were indisputable, the US needed someone who they thought they could rely on. So, they helped General Noriega take power over Spadafora, etc. (other "Torrijistas") and additionally set up a deal for Noriega to middle coke and coke money from Colombia to the USA. This gave you your crack epidemic. Once Noriega saw what was going on with all the money being made in crack, he got pissed off because he and his men were taking all the risks and getting a bad share of the money. So, he balked and middled the coke to areas outside the US.

In comes St. Colin Powell to kill civilians to bring Noriega up on neither murder nor drugs charges in Miami federal court but rather tax and fraud charges. They affirmed the "election" of a better US puppet in Endara.

Clinton finalized Carter-Torrijos in 1999 and took the US military and CIA out of Panama.

Noriega now is a total irrelevancy.

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 4:44pm
I also have to give some credit to a lot of post-Noriega political leaders here across the spectrum -- Guillermo Endara, Billy Ford, Ernest Perez-Balladares, Sra Moscoso de Arias and Martin Torrijos credit for keeping a small but important decision going.

Starting with Endara, they have left the entire neighborhood of the capital which wss absolutely levelled by Powell an organic living memorial to those innocent civilians killed, maimed, and made homeless by Powell.

It's a national shrine and it covers a very large area, bigger than Ground Zero. It's a freak-out to see during the day. I oouldn't handle going there at night. Too weird to think about. This is a big deal because that land is very valuable now.

On a tangential note, Panama is not plagued by the racism that poisons the US. Nor any bigotry, homophobia, sexism at all. The idea that people of different self-identities wouldn't mix socially or inter-marry is silly. People are proud of their ancestry but racism doesn't get in the way of living life.

That is why I find it both laughable and sad in a way that a monster like Powell is put forward for African-Americans as a "role model." Any parent who presents a sadist and coward as a role model to his or her children ought to rethink their priorities. But that's just my opinion.

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 5:19pm
@ So, what exactly is your point here? That an occasional foreigner might have taken more interest than a typical American in looking at the political situation in the U.S.? Perhaps. But actually living somewhere means you know more about what's important than so-called experts that live somewhere else.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/01/2008 @ 3:04pm |

Mr SR Jenkins: I went to college and graduate school in your country. I have a good ear for accents and languages because we hear such a variety of them here. I don't look like a White Christian American but I speak unaccented English. If you are imagining that I speak with US TV Mexican accent you are dead wrong.

I know very well what the cultural priorities of the US are. They have to do with God and the flag and America being the "greatest country on Earth," and being the "land of opportunity," and being some example of "freedom" to the rest of the world. I have as much disdain for that as you do for the study of finance. I don't think I'm BETTER than you, however, merely different.

Here's a cultural thing that might make you understand. One of the touchstones of culture here is boxing. It is something everybody in Panama knows and cares a lot about. There is no doubt in my mind that people care more about the sport of boxing here than they do about the flag of Panama. We certainly care more about boxing than about the "War On Terror."

I remember that a lot of Americans are really turned off by boXing and most don't care about it. A lot of Iraq War supporters don't like boxing because it's TOO VIOLENT!

You now understand something about my culture even though you don't live here. What's bad about that?

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 6:48pm
Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 6:48pm

আমিও অন্য দেশের ভাসা জানেন আর আমার স্ত্রির, একজন বাংলা মেয়ে, ঠিক ইংরিজি বলতে পারেন।

Considering my wife was originally born in India and speaks better English than I do, I can't say any of the thoughts you imagine in your first paragraph ever occurred to me. The fact that they occurred to you is suggestive of perhaps your prejudices, which I have no doubt are based on many experiences with Americans. But, I'm not them.

I don't disdain the study of finance. I simply brought up the point that knowledge of finance or trivial facts such as the names of Senators doesn't give one any kind of special insight into U.S. politics. Living with and being impacted by those politics - frequently does give one some insight.

I agree that it is good to know other cultures. However, it is quite a different matter to suggest that because I speak Bengali, know more of their history than most Bengalis, and attended a Bengali university, that somehow I have special insight into the political situation in West Bengal that is better than someone that lives there, and has done so all their lives.

I know enough to know how long and how difficult it takes to understand a different culture, and even then, I still frequently get it wrong. Perhaps, you too are a little too confident in your knowledge of the U.S. - and too quick to categorize people into the standard ugly American mold.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/01/2008 @ 9:27pm
b_kool_66

"nexus for the roiling social currents set in motion by the decomposition of ruling class institutions"

I do my best to read each post, extract the message, understand the intent, taste the nuance, evaluate the veracity, and reach a conclusion.

But after years of reading and study, when I come across stuff that sounds like it comes straight from old Karl's pen directly, I kind of just puke.

Just say it in English or Spanish, or whatever.

Posted by sntauri at 10/01/2008 @ 9:43pm
Posted by srjenkins at 10/01/2008 @ 9:27pm

Standing ovation for that.

Posted by freiheit1 at 10/01/2008 @ 9:47pm
Hello DexterManley:

You asked above:

"(12) Describe the issues involved in Lincoln's decision to enagage the CSA and why is that like the ADF court challenge to the IRS?"

I don't see where Lincoln engaged the Confederate States of America.

Because of the slavery issue, and also because of trade and states rights issues, the southern states seceded from the Union when Lincoln was elected President.

The War Between the States began when the Confederate militia fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston.

Unless you mean that Lincoln engaged the Confederate States by campaigning for President on a platform on not expanding slavery beyond the South, and how when the South seceded both Lincoln and the previous administration viewed that as a rebellion?

Posted by sjchermak at 10/01/2008 @ 10:21pm
@ Perhaps, you too are a little too confident in your knowledge of the U.S. -and too quick to categorize people into the standard ugly American mold.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/01/2008 @ 9:27pm

Mr Jenkins: I take your points. No, I don't know what it's like in suburban or rural America. I went to college in New England and graduate school in Los Angeles. I have some relatives in the US, all of whom live in big cities.

The parts of America I know, I really liked a lot but I've gotten a sense especially during the last three presidential campaigns that somehow New England or Los Angeles are not part of America! Certainly not the one Republican candidates have spoken of when they speak of "American values." Both are very diverse and complicated places in the way that most countries outside the US are. Being in academic environments is also a different experience than living day to day in a small, White Christian, tight-knit, homogeonous community.

I've also lived in Madrid twice, Oviedo once, London, and Moscow. I picked up as much as I could about the cultures of each city and the countries themselves.

The problem is that I never heard any of the leaders of any of the other countries I've lived get up during elections and proclaim Spain, England, Russia or Panama to be "the greatest country on Earth and an example of freedom and opportunity to the rest of the world...the rest of the world looks to Spain/England/Russia/Panama to show them how to be a free democratic state..." Or "Only In Spain/England/Russia/Panama could ____ be possible." Not even John Major did that!

Of Western nations, "only" in America could I go to prison for the FELONY having a tiny amount of drugs on me for my own consumption, perhaps, but not anything else!

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 10:23pm
On a tangential note, Panama is not plagued by the racism that poisons the US. Nor any bigotry, homophobia, sexism at all.

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 5:19pm

uh, no.

¿No hay racismo en Panamá?

La discriminación existe en nuestro diario vivir y lo peor es que existe en los corazones de muchos panameños Carmela Lowe de Gobern Hoy he decido tomar la batuta en representación de los negros de nuestro país, para llamar la atención al reciente ejemplo de racismo, especialmente para los que insisten que "no existe el racismo en Panamá". Me refiero a la indignante portada del sábado 17 de noviembre del diario La Crítica. Para los que no tuvieron la oportunidad de ser testigos de esto, permítanme pintarles el cuadro mental. El titular impreso en la portada decía: ¿Quién es más bella? Y seguidamente dos fotografías grandes: a la izquierda, Lourdes González, Srta. Panamá 2001 en el certamen Miss Mundo y a la derecha, Abgani Darego, la recién electa Srta. Miss Mundo 2001 y representante de Nigeria, país al oeste del continente africano. El pie de foto de Lourdes decía: "No llegó ni de finalista".

.............................

Un incidente que fue una gran humillación fue cuando tuve unos parientes de Estados Unidos como huéspedes en mi hogar y querían conocer la vida nocturna. Fueron acompañados a la discoteca "Congo" (anteriormente ubicada en la Vía Ricardo J. Alfaro) y les prohibieron la entrada alegando el famoso "derecho de admisión" indicando que fue por su tez "morena" y también porque las mujeres lucían peinados con trenzas (cornrow). Estas personas eran dos médicos, un ingeniero y y una cantante y artista de Broadway (Nueva York), y todos sufrimos con ese acto de discriminación racial. Estos son solamente algunos casos, pero hay muchos más.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 10:25pm
mensual/contenido/2001/12/08/hoy/opinion/364685.html

<i>jamais dites jamais...........

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 10:25pm
LOL, nothing personal, but look who's talking!

Just trying to get a rise out of you...for shits n' giggles.

Posted by madlib at 10/01/2008 @ 9:14pm

More likely trying to draw me out so you can put a bullet through me.

However,

point taken.

I will behave myself in the future.

Posted by Benchrest at 10/01/2008 @ 10:29pm
La Coordinadora Nacional de Organizaciones Negras Panameñas, denunció hoy que en Panamá persisten resabios de racismo que se reflejan en el rechazo de alumnos de piel obscura en centros educativos particulares.

Un comunicado suscrito por Eunice Meneses y Alberto Barrow, dirigentes de la Corodinadora, advirtió que existen planteles que se reservan el "derecho de admisión" de afrodescendientes, como el Colegio Brader, que rechazó al estudiante negro Samuel Freeman.

Las denuncias contra el racismo remarcan la práctica cotidiana de prohibir a los jóvenes afropanameños los peinados del tipo "corn rows" (trenzas), que utilizan tradicionalmente las niñas con cabellos de hebra gruesa.

De acuerdo con el comunicado, avalado por el Comité Panameño contra el Racismo, las limitaciones en las oportunidades de acceso al mercado laboral, a través de solicitudes de fotografías previas, en trámites de empleo, expresan la discriminación racial en Panamá.

Organizaciones de derechos humanos desarrollan desde hace varios años la campaña "No me pidas una foto", para evitar que el color de la piel decidida la aprobación o rechazo de una solicitud de empleo en el sector privado.

Asimismo, los integrantes de la Coordinadora instaron al gobierno a adoptar políticas de equidad e inclusión social, que fomenten la reeducación en valores humanos y promuevan leyes antirracistas.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 10:30pm
El IIDH, con el apoyo de USAID y por medio del Departamento de Entidades de la Sociedad Civil, inicia en el año 2002 y hasta mayo de 2005, el proyecto de Promoción de una cultura de inclusión. Su objetivo fue: dotar de mayores capacidades de incidencia en la agenda del movimiento de derechos humanos de la sociedad civil, a organizaciones de mujeres, indígenas y afro-descendientes, en sus esfuerzos por disminuir la brecha entre la igualdad jurídica y la igualdad real; pretendiendo al mismo tiempo, el mayor goce de derechos de estas poblaciones y el consecuente fortalecimiento de la democracia.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 10:34pm
Los pueblos Ngobes ubicados en la comunidad de Charco la Pava , Distrito de Changuinola, Provincia de Bocas del Toro, en Panamá, denuncian que siguen siendo objetos de cruentas violaciones de los derechos humanos fundamentales. Entre ellos, denuncian la ocupación en el pueblo de la policía nacional, utilización de fuerza letal contra los vecinos, tortura a dirigentes de la comunidad, destrucción de propiedades, tierras y hogares. Los hechos han sido generados, según la comunidad, en causa de las acciones de la empresa AES Changuinola, la cual quiere desarrollar una hidroeléctrica en el Rio Changuinola. La empresa recibe todo el apoyo de los órganos gubernamentales.

"La empresa AES Changuinola, en conjunto con el Gobierno Nacional, y bajo la supervisión armada de la Policía nos planteo nuestras alternativas: aceptar 2 mil dólares por hectárea de nuestra tierra (20 centavos el metro cuadrado) o nos quitan las tierras a la fuerza la primera semana de abril de 2008. Nos están obligando a negociar bajo la amenaza de las armas y la muerte", afirman.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 10:43pm
La República de Panamá, consciente de la discriminación contra las mujeres que existe ha formulado y ejecutado programas y planes de acción que contribuyen a potenciar el papel de la mujer y su adelanto. Así, muestra de ello es que el Estado Panameño sancionó la Ley por la cual se instituye la Igualdad de Oportunidades para las Mujeres (Ley No.4 de 29 de enero de 1999) y su posterior reglamentación (Decreto Ejecutivo No. 53 de 25 de junio de 2002). De igual manera, dando continuidad al Primer Plan Mujer y Desarrollo su Plan de Acción 1996 – 2001, se confeccionó un Plan de Acción para los años 2002-2006 denominado Plan de Igualdad de Oportunidades II 2002-2006 (PIOM II), a través de un proceso de consulta y participación de todos los sectores de la sociedad. Por otro lado se logra la creación y coordinación de la Red de Mecanismos Gubernamentales de Promoción de la Igualdad de Oportunidades para las Mujeres en Panamá, en las Instituciones del Estado.

En este mismo contexto se elabora el Plan Nacional Contra la Violencia Doméstica y Formas de Convivencia Ciudadana, cuyos resultados están orientados a disminuir la creciente violencia que a diario se vive en la sociedad panameña. En tal sentido, es un instrumento que busca superar los obstáculos socioculturales, institucionales y jurídicos, con la finalidad de atacar las múltiples dimensiones del problema de la violencia doméstica. Presentando además, acciones dirigidas a proveer a la población de recursos humanos especializados y servicios adecuados para una atención integral, oportuna, con calidad y calidez.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 10:46pm
@ I still LOVE boxing and have been against the GWOT since...well, since day one really.

Can I move to Panama? Do you speak regular Spanish there? TAKE ME IN DAMMIT! SAAAAAAAAAAVE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by madlib at 10/01/2008 @ 9:19pm

I'm not the guy who does tourism ads for Panama. That's Ruben Blades!

I'm not sure what "regular Spanish" is. If you can speak and read Spanish, you'll be able to get around and enjoy yourself. If you mean do we speak "Castellano" (soft c's and z's pronounced as "th" and use the 2nd person plural) the answer is no. Every place has it's different slang and local expressions.

Can you live here? Interesting question. Panama used to take Americans in no problem and were very lax with visas. Since the US has become such a pain in the ass about everything (if you want details, ask), Panama, like Canada and many other developed nations has adopted a very strict residency policy. You get a 3-month visa and if you don't have a job, you have to maintain a minimum net worth of $250,000 USD in any combination of cash, real estate, or marketable securities. Panama has a pretty generous social safety net including a great national health and the government does not want American tax parasites. What happened was that in 1999 when Bill Clinton liberated Panama from any connection to the US, we got an influx of American retirees looking for country-club lifestyles on the cheap and our privacy laws. That was fine then.

When Bush took over and as part of the "war on terror" starting trying to force the banks to turn over account info and generally being a pest, putting us on the US "blacklist" and such, the US retirees were seen as a drain on the national health and Torrijos didn't want to do Americans any more favors.

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 10:47pm
Panamá sufre "duras condiciones penales, con informes de abusos por parte de funcionarios de prisiones, prolongadas detenciones antes de juicios, corrupción y manipulación del sistema judicial" así como "presión política contra los medios".

El país también padece, como el resto de Centroamérica "discriminación y violencia contra mujeres, tráfico de personas, discriminación contra comunidades indígenas y trabajo infantil".

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 10:48pm
I gave up hunting years ago.

Posted by madlib at 10/01/2008 @ 10:42pm

Pity.

I suspect you were extremely proficient at it.

One of my favorite things to do.

Posted by Benchrest at 10/01/2008 @ 10:50pm
It was always meant to be sarcastic.

Posted by madlib at 10/01/2008 @ 10:47pm

Understood.

My apologies.

Peace.

Posted by Benchrest at 10/01/2008 @ 10:54pm
El 29 de septiembre de 1995, el cuerpo de un transvestita cuyo nombre no se conoce pero que tendría unos 27 años de edad, fue encontrado en la Panamericana cerca del Puente Bonilla, en la ciudad de Mercaderes, departamento de Cauca. La víctima tenía tres heridas de bala en diferentes partes de su cuerpo.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 10:55pm
"Que acepte como hombre lo que dijo en el concierto", expresó Ricardo Beteta, presidente de la Asociación de Hombres y Mujeres Nuevos de Panamá, rechazando las explicaciones del rapero y pastor Nando Boom, sobre su interpretación de "No Mariflor" en el concierto de Jerry Rivera.

Beteta insiste en que el cantante incitó a la violencia cuando dijo "¡No mariflor, matar mariflor!"

Nando explicó ayer a "Mi Diario" que cuando decía matar se refería al pecado, a la acción y no al sujeto, pues tiene muchos fans gay y no los rechaza. "Tal vez no me entendieron, condenamos las adicciones, más no al adicto", dijo.

Beteta, sin embargo, está firme en su posición de enviar un comunicado, primero a nivel nacional y luego internacional, denunciando lo que él llama "un acto de homofobia e incitación a la violencia".

El presidente de los hombres y mujeres nuevos hizo estas declaraciones en el "Viernes de Escenarios", ahora en radio, en "La Mañana Espectacular" de Manuel Núñez por RPC.

NO PERDONARÁ A LOS GAYS: Nando Boom alega que los gays son sus fans y que el explica que no es discriminacion sino un mensaje para que las personas no lleguen a esas inmoralidades, ademas con relación a las reacciones de los gays "ellos no se disculpan ante nosotros por darles enseñanza erronea a nuestros jovenes y niños, de vestirse de mujeres para carnavales y todo eso. SI ELLOS DISCULPAN, ENTONCES YO ME DISCULPO. El tema "No mas Mariflor" es grabada en 1992 hallaron la reacción nada menos que el concierto de Jerry Rivera por algun gay que estaba ahí. Además explico sobre la realidad del homosexual o lesbiana.

AQUI TENEMOS EL COMUNICADO EMITIDO ACERCA DEL POLEMICO CASO DE LA PAGINA WEB www.ahmnp.org

La Asociación Hombres y Mujeres Nuevos de Panamá (AHMNP) desea denunciar un acto de homofobia

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 10:57pm
i'd say there's plenty of sexism, racism and homophobia in panamá.

even crazy preachers!

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 10:58pm
- and too quick to categorize people into the standard ugly American mold.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/01/2008 @ 9:27pm

fucking right!

i've got lots of yanqui friends and they're all cool.

plus, almost all the music i play is american.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/01/2008 @ 11:03pm
@ Frosty: I hardly meant that there weren't knuckleheads or outrageous incidents. Jeez, being Jewish I could never be accepted into the Union Club. I'm crying a river about it, believe me. No Muslims or Hindus could get in either. What I meant was that the color of one's skin was not a factor in normal social and business situations. It never comes up.

There merely isn't the balkanization you find in the US and you don't hear in the political dialogue things like "the culture of dependency" or "Blacks are always acting like victims" or "is Panama READY for a woman president or is Panama READY for a black president"...been there, done that...doing it again in May of 2009 when Balbina Herrera wins the Presidency and da da da. You know exactly what I mean so...ya basta de hacer el papel de un canson...y cuentame mas chistes graciosos de los varios pueblos latinos...MMMkay?

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 11:13pm
@ Oye, canson:

I hate Latin music other than reggaeton. I like rock and rap.

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 11:15pm
Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 11:15pm

You like Kid Rocks' new album?

Posted by Benchrest at 10/01/2008 @ 11:31pm
A mi me da igual de quieres seguir con la vaina de ponerte payaso fastidiado y malgeniado o que sea o si no pues que me importa? Ya dejo la vaina de picar y rascar y te doy los puntos del debate, oiste? Felicitaciones. Te brindo una copa de champana. Ganaste.

Aunque seas mas agil con la polemcia que tal vez William Ewart Gladstone o Benjamin Disraeli, te gusta el Principe Harper? Te gusta el dictador Bush? Te gusta la vaina de los gringos de mierda? Yo soy un tipo super-relajado y entiendo que no soy ni la pinga.

Tu eres listo no hay nada de duda. Pero mira crees tu que se puede HABLAR de los derechos gay en los EEUU. Los gays da asco a McCain a Palin y a Obama a la vez. Tal vea le dan asco al Principe Azul de Otawa tambien.

Si o no?

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 11:36pm
I'm a huge Eminem fan...not big on Kid Rock

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 11:38pm
...not big on Kid Rock

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 11:38pm

LATEST album.

nevermind.

Well, FZ will be quite happy with that answer.

Posted by Benchrest at 10/01/2008 @ 11:42pm
Wowee Zowee. You are a master cub reporter aren't you? You uncovered an incidence of homophobia during Endara's adminsitration when the US Army (a very tolerant organziation) ran the country!

Genius at work.

Pero mira las tonterias. Tu quejas de tu pobreza. Entonces si te gusta tanto el rollo de los gringos y si crees que el goberierno panameno del ano 2008 sea super-malo entonce no me digas mas quejas cansonas y levantate por tus propios "bootstraps"!

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 11:53pm
@ FZ: Well at any rate it was a nice cut and paste job. I know that you don't have those facts at your fingertips and neither of us write such sophisticated formal Spanish as in your "evidence" but just keep playing butt-boy to the gringos if you like.

You were right about Harper before. And Calderon? You could knock him over with a feather. I didn't like Vicente Fox particularly but when Bush stepped out of line, Fox told him the what-for. When (election-thief) Calderon steps out of line, any of the zillion US social control agencies tell him to pipe down and he says "yessir, thank you sir, may I have another?"

In Yiddish: das shonj

En Espanol: una desgracia

Posted by DexterManley at 10/02/2008 @ 12:09am
Principe Azul de Otawa

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008

¡no mames, güey!

the blue prince of ottawa!

hahahahahahaha!

17,445544,667,5466,445,32 points for you.....

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 12:21am
Tu quejas de tu pobreza.

•• no me quejo. somos muy contentos aquí en mi casa bendita.

Entonces si te gusta tanto el rollo de los gringos

•• bueno, es bastante dificil generalizar de 300 millones de personas. el gobierno, si, es otro rollo. pero eso se puede decir de los gobiernos de cualquier localidad en esta tierra......

y si crees que el goberierno panameno del ano 2008 sea super-malo entonce no me digas mas quejas cansonas

•• de nuevo, el gobierno de un país refleja poco la voluntad de la gente. me gustaria mucho creer que un lugar existe en donde no haya ni pedos ni assholes, y como tu mencionaste panamá en estes terminos, me pusé a investigar. all the world's a stage and my knowledge is googleplexian. sin embargo, me imagino que seria igual de feliz en panamá como lo estoy aquí.

y levantate por tus propios "bootstraps"!

•• no way. i suck the public tit! just kidding. aqui, trabajamos mucho y ¡con orgullo!

Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 12:32am
but just keep playing butt-boy to the gringos if you like.

Posted by DexterManley at 10/02/2008

ssshhhh!

no les des ideas.

cruzo la frontera con frecuencia.......

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 12:35am
but just keep playing butt-boy to the gringos if you like.

Posted by DexterManley at 10/02/2008

i play "butt-boy" to humanity.

people are essentially the same wherever you go.

a corrupt government is one thing, folks playing futból are another.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 12:38am
oh, and kid rock supersucks!

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 12:38am
we can't vote,

but we sure can clog the blog!

peace be upon you, peter rothberg.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 12:40am
oye compay,

no quisé ponerme de mamón.......

soló fue el hecho que has dicho que en panamá no existe las tonterias que afligen al resto del mundo en varias posts ya,

entonces mi curiosidad se levantó....

sin embargo, si realmente queria ser dificil, hubiera traducido los cut'n'pastes que se encuentran arriba.

he disfrutado tu llegada aqui en los blog pits de thenation.com, y espero que seguiras dando tus 2¢.

live long and prosper,

fz.

oye,

conoces a john zorn:

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=pJkmTdoYQYE&fmt=18&fmt=18

¡MASADA!

תקופות

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 12:51am
The U.S. Army and the Costa Rican Social Security System, also known as La Caja, are teaming up to provide health care to isolated indigenous people.

The Ngobes tribe, roughly 600 of whom live on a reservation in Punta Burica on the border with Panama, are scheduled to receive medical assistance Sept. 25-27.

Thanks to logistical and medical assistance from the United States, the locals will be receiving medical services for the first time in at least two years, according to Golfito Acting Health Director Jocseliny Benavides.

•• ¿ves? no todo es malo.....

http://www.almanaqueazul.org/images/bocas_ngobe/es

cudo/escudo_casas_1.jpg

•• ¡a nadar!

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 12:58am
o.k. peter

THAT'S it.

gracias......

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 12:58am
Whew, that's a whole bunch of blog, Dex, don't you ever work?

Lucky guy. (Assuming you're M, not F. If F, apologies.)

Still don't know why daddy Bush felt he had to invade ... sovereignty issue didn't require that. neither do tax & fraud charges ... or drug middling ... it was, at the time, thought to be more.

What more was that?

Colin Powell has always been a faithful to his masters, starting with his spin meistership as PIO Americal Div Vietnam, controlling the My Lai expose fallout, for which he was rewarded with a Nixon White House fellow slot ... all the way to his UN sound & light show for W Jr.

Posted by sloper at 10/02/2008 @ 01:44am
Poll results aren't really a surprise given that most of the world's people aren't right wing, Christian fundamentalist, American nationalists. Much has been made of what the candidates have been saying on television (and rightly so). But noone said "Boo" when McCain declared on "The View" that he believes that God has a special plan for America" Gimme a break. That's Nationalism and American elitism- pure, simple and ugly. How would you expect the rest of the world to react??

----------- http://www.youtube.com/user/doginmanger

Posted by doginamanger at 10/02/2008 @ 07:54am
Can't wait until Obama is elected and everybody STILL hates the US. Then it'll be;

"Takes time to undo Bush's mess."

"American imperialism blah blah blah."

Germany's unemployment rate is at a 15-year low. 7.4!!!

Think racism doesn't exist elsewhere, go to China.

Posted by bleedingheart at 10/02/2008 @ 09:22am
Posted by DexterManley at 10/01/2008 @ 10:23pm

And, I take your points.

But I would also mute them by saying that, of all the places I've been in the world, rural United States tends to be more diverse than most rural communities elsewhere. And in U.S. cities, ethnic groups come together to form homogeneous communities where they can maintain their own cultures. White, Christian culture is simply more isolated, more rural.

And bigotry isn't a special quality of white, Christian America. I've noticed that many Hispanics living in the U.S. have prejudices against black and white people.

Example: When I buy mangos from a fruit seller on my street, I get charged one price. My wife, who is mistakenly taken to be Hispanic, is charged another, lesser price. When asked why, the fruit seller said it was because I am a gringo.

Granted, I'm not one to bargain, partly because it wasn't part of my culture growing up, but it is interesting that he offered that reason rather than simply saying I didn't bargain.

The U.S. was also founded by Puritans, which feeds into this idea of a nation of predestination - Manifest Destiny, which later was used by Wilson to argue for the United States to intervene in the cause of "freedom". We should also mention that we are likely in the middle of another Great Awakening.

So, while all our your points are valid, we do need to consider the historical antecedents, and how these ideas have been advocated by the powerful in pursuit of their own agendas.

As for racism not being in Latin America, I found this discussion interesting, particularly because it discusses Latin American racism I see in the U.S. and that I don't believe started here:

http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/print.asp?parentid=4125

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am
Can't wait until Obama is elected and everybody STILL hates the US.

Posted by bleedingheart at 10/02/2008

oh, we love you guys.

you're like the fat, obnoxious uncle who visits at christmas.

life of the party, even if headache provoking.

the problems start after dinner when the brandy breaks out........

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 10:46am
But I would also mute them by saying that, of all the places I've been in the world, rural United States tends to be more diverse than most rural communities elsewhere.

••• i concur. many latinos are now farming. and vietnamese. and of course, what people call "white" is an amalgam of ukrainian, german, scot, etc., and of course the ex-slaves.

••• also, there is a small (but growing) influx of urban hybrids who have decided to retake the land.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:15am
And in U.S. cities, ethnic groups come together to form homogeneous communities where they can maintain their own cultures.

••• they do tend to "americanize" more than in other immigrant heavy countries, however. if the u.s. is a melting pot, canada is a salad.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:15am
White, Christian culture is simply more isolated, more rural.

•• and more vocal!

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:15am
And bigotry isn't a special quality of white, Christian America.

•• hell no. i can't count the number of times i've heard "YOU PLAY GOOD FOR A WHITE BOY." por favor.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:15am
I've noticed that many Hispanics living in the U.S. have prejudices against black and white people.

•• on mexican t.v. you can still see dudes in blackface.

•• nonetheless, mexicans are most racist AGAINST THEMSELVES! turn on mexican t.v. and you'd swear you were in sweden.

•• mexicans hate "gringos". countless times i heard "oh, you're canadian. oh, o.k." and i was now treated nicely.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:16am
Example: When I buy mangos from a fruit seller on my street, I get charged one price. My wife, who is mistakenly taken to be Hispanic, is charged another, lesser price. When asked why, the fruit seller said it was because I am a gringo.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

•• in acapulco, i ask the taxi driver "how much" in intentionally bad spanish. "40 pesos"

•• i ask in fluent "mexican" "5 pesos".

•• srj, you are not a "gringo". you are an earthling and the earth likes it that way.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:16am
Granted, I'm not one to bargain, partly because it wasn't part of my culture growing up, but it is interesting that he offered that reason rather than simply saying I didn't bargain.

•• ooh, i was feared in the market in xalapa. i love to barter and i'm good.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:16am
The U.S. was also founded by Puritans, which feeds into this idea of a nation of predestination - Manifest Destiny, which later was used by Wilson to argue for the United States to intervene in the cause of "freedom".

•• uh, that's "many fist destiny"

•• nothing personal, but i thank god for tecumseh's bravery everyday.

"A more sagacious or a gallant warrior does not, I believe, exist". -- General Brock, Commander of the British Forces, at Amherstburg.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:16am
We should also mention that we are likely in the middle of another Great Awakening.

•• britain's way better that they are no longer an empire. japan has thrived since they've stopped meddling. bonne chance!

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:16am
So, while all our your points are valid, we do need to consider the historical antecedents, and how these ideas have been advocated by the powerful in pursuit of their own agendas.

•• the wheels on the bus go round and round

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:16am
As for racism not being in Latin America, I found this discussion interesting, particularly because it discusses Latin American racism I see in the U.S. and that I don't believe started here:

•• oh, there's assholes everywhere. thankfully, however, we seem to be evolving, albeit slower than a mcdonald's bowel movement.

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:16am
http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/print.asp?parentid=4125

•• The Subtle Racism of Latin America

•• subtle?? think again. white (criollo) people work in banks, brown people wash toilets. same ol' same ol'

•• http://www.miamiherald.com/multimedia/new

s/afrolatin/part3/index.html

Posted by srjenkins at 10/02/2008 @ 09:51am

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 11:16am
I have to say, some of the responses to this column is shameful and IGNORANT! Obviously the whole world can not elect our President...you are totally missing the point! It is always good to know the perspective of our International neighbors. We have lost such respect in the world- which clearly GWB and his cronies don't care about too much- however it does put is on the short end of the stick so to speak. The idea of having a President that can replenish our Diplomacy in the world is comforting to say the least. I know some of you Americans like to think the world spins around us... however that is the arrogant banters of the Right Wing wacko's. I love my country- but I also prefer that we show what America is truly about- and its not about knocking others down or acting better than everyone else to spite ourselves. I guess you all really have no clue just how bad the world views us- or maybe you could care less. But I can tell you Americans traveling abroad more often than not- put Canadian flags on their luggage as to not be mistaken or targetted for being American. Now that is sad and there is no reason for it! We are good, smart, strong people, and our President should be representative of that fact. So I take pride in the fact that the rest of the world is that concerned for us- and care enough to wish Obama to be our President! My family in Europe watches very closely to the politics of the USA. They have a very good understanding of what the last 8 years has done to our country and abroad. They like Obama because they are as terrified of what 4 more years of GWB policies would do to the international world as well as ours. Whether you narrow minded folks want to realize it our not- we live in a global market- a global economy! Get an education!

Posted by DanaNY at 10/02/2008 @ 11:22am
nice, danaNY

hit return once in a while for better readability.

Posted by frosty zoom at 10/02/2008 @ 12:04pm
frostyzoom- I would have but didn't have enough room to seperate into paragraphs...

Posted by DanaNY at 10/02/2008 @ 3:48pm
Over the past 8 years Bush has killed thousands of your soldiers and made your homes nearly worthless. You're about to be impoverished by the worst economic shock of the past 75 years. So you might want to shut up and start planting some tubers in the back yard. (Naturally, we expats will do what we can to help -- send you our old clothes, second-hand laptops and empty wine bottles...

Posted by takemyveepplease at 10/02/2008 @ 10:59pm

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If Only They Could All Vote

posted by Peter Rothberg on 10/01/2008 @ 1:03pm

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