Vaniloquencations

Hmmm… what did I do today? A lot of little stuff… Saudi Arabia is shaping up that we’re going to “get what we want” out of them so that’s exciting and I’ve been working on drafting and circulating various related papers. Oh, I bailed out of the conference this morning cause I awakened, reread the agenda, and had no stomach to go listen to liberal international organizations talk about bringing peace to Colombia. I had been invited, it was hosted by congressmen on the Hill, but since it didn’t directly relate to IRF issues it wasn’t necessary that I go and I thought it was more important I be at Staff mtg this morning so I skipped it. Tomorrow I have a much more interesting conference on survival strategies of the Communist parties in N Korea, Vietnam, and China.



I did come across something not particularly shocking but equally angering. Yesterday Jesse Jackson introduced SEVEN Constitutional Amendments to congress! Basically the idiot wants to add to the list of human rights: education, healthcare, housing, employment, AND a progressive tax rate among other insane things! It never ceases to amaze me how people can think they know so much better than the writers of our Constitution! Everything he named it would be UNCONSTITUTIONAL for the Govnt to supply, control, or regulate…much less guarantee. The progressive tax rate me especially angry—a human right??!!! It’s already unconstitutional! I’m not worried that his amendments would get passed anytime soon (at least I hope I’m right on that!!) but it’s unbelievable that he would even file them and take up US Govnt resources… and the scariest part is that they all “sound good” so who knows if someday they might have enough support to pass…





Well, Peru finally decided to have a strike I strongly disagree with. According to the news, it’s the largest since the one I was there for last July. I haven’t heard first-hand accounts yet, but Aqp will be a center of the protesting as usual. This time its against the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) which the US is trying to push through as an agreement with a lot of the Latin American nations opening the doors for freer trade. In my opinion, it’s the biggest right step the US has taken toward Latin America in a while. Bush has been, understandably, not at all focused on LA… but in part due to Martinez’ election in Florida, there is wider spread support for conservative policies on LA in Congress now. I’ve personally met and discussed the bill with several of the players who’ve been working it for years now. There have been protests all over Latin America—mainly farmers worried America’s subsidized exports will ruin their markets. While I’m obviously 100% against the subsidizing of American farmers, that predication is unlikely considering it is LA who has the cheaper labor and everything to gain under CAFTA. Of all the protests…the one in Peru actually bothers me. Making this about President Toledo, currently the most unpopular president in all of Latin America, turns Peruvians against a good step that a bad president is willing to take. The scariest part is that Uruguay just joined the ranks this week of LA countries with extremely liberal presidents, and with neo-communist Chavez in Venezuela controlling the region because of the oil supply, the odds of the 2006 election being a giant step in the wrong direction for Peru is scarily growing larger. Ok, I’ll stop with the political talk now…

Gotta go write a paper that’s due tomorrow and I haven’t started…