Omeed Aziz Popal, 29, who deliberately hunted and ran down 14 pedestrians, was apparently just a little horny, that's all. Popal had recently returned from Afghanistan where he had gone to marry a gal whom he had never seen nor even spoken to. Popal, being a U.S. citizen, unfortunately, had returned home to Fremont, CA but his blushing bride was still in Afghanistan awaiting a visa.
According to family members, upon his return he began experiencing "strange dreams" (no doubt visits from Muhammed or Mohammed or Mahmet or whomever) and then, Monday, went out in his family's SUV and began chasing down and then running down pedestrians. He has killed one, so far, of the 14 that he eventually mowed down. The toll of injured and hospitalized includes a teen on a bicycle and an old man with a cane.
The victim whom he crushed to death with his Honda SUV was walking on a bike path. Now, in most states that would be considered murder, especially since it is obvious that Popal was hunting for victims and running down all he could find. However, Fremont is up there right next to Berkeley/San Francisco. It is no doubt illegal to walk on a bicycle path. So I would imagine that, rather than a first degree murder charge as our Afghan assassin would receive in, say, St. Louis or Indianapolis or Atlanta, he'll be charged with some type of moving violation that carries a 3 month suspended sentence. That is, if the California prosecutor can even get a conviction.
The prosecutor only has about 50 eyewitnesses and a smashed up Honda covered in victims blood, bits of clothing, hair and DNA. The police removed Popal from the vehicle (from the driver's seat, the one located immediately behind the steering wheel). I say that, without a full confession, the prosecutor stands about a 50/50 chance of a conviction for driving left-of-center. With a full confession, the prosecutor's odds improve to 70/30. First degree murder? Out of the question.
Now this is an interesting comparison of descriptions of Popal. His cousin, one Hamid Nekrawesh, 43, said, "He grew up as a Western boy in the United States and went to Afghanistan to get married culturally over there," and "He was a very respectful, quiet, nice guy."
His neighbor, who has lived two doors down from Popal for three years, said, "He never spoke. He never said hello. He was quiet. He never opened his mouth."
Never spoke to his neighbor in three years? Goes to Afghanistan to marry a girl whom he has never spoken to, much less ever seen? Maybe he owns a pair of cowboy boots and a couple pairs of Levis which would, I suppose, qualify him as a "Western boy" in his cousin's eyes. It sounds more to me like another Muslim weird-o who finally snapped and decided to kill some Yankee monkeys and sons of dogs.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Fremont, California, vehicular homicide
I heard gunshots fired this morning at about 6:00 AM. I have not heard any reports about the incident. And, please, before anyone sends a comment concerning fireworks, I know the difference between gunshots and fuegos artificiales. The shots sounded like they came from the area of the university but I cannot be sure.
Here is a nice Flash presentation from Reforma using aerial or satellite photos. It shows some of the buildings that have been taken by APPO and the striking teachers. The address is: http://www.reforma.com/libre/online/envialo/Envia_Amigo.asp?pagina=http://gruporeforma.reforma.com/graficoanimado/estados/oaxaca_appo/&md5=
5291ab8dfa91af0df2d71cdd8cc558f1
I have an account with Reforma which is how I accessed this. You should be able to access it free. I could test it but I would have to delete my cookie files and I don't want to do that today. If you look at the link you will see the word "libre" right after "reforma.com" which indicates free access, I hope.
The map is somewhat self-explanatory, although it took me a few seconds to figure out how to switch pages. At the bottom you will see the numbers 1 thru 7. Click on a number to change views. For reference, in the bottom left-hand corner of each page is a shot of most of the city. In quadrants 1,2,6 and 10 you see an open area. That's the Cerro del Fortin that you drive around when you enter the city from the northwest (Mexico City - Puebla). Another good reference is in view 7, where in the lower right-hand corner of the photo you see the baseball stadium. The east-west street adjacent to the north side of the stadium is Calzada de Los Niños Héroes de Chapultepec. Historical note #1: The boy heroes of Chapultepec never existed -- it's a myth, but that's a story for another day. The north-south street adjacent to the east side of the stadium is Eduardo Vasconcelos on the south side of Niños Héroes and Heróica Escuela Militar to the north. Historical note #2: The military school is where the mythical niños héroes came from, but again, that's another story.
A gang of APPO thugs broke into the State Congress, smashing windows, glass doors, ripping up furniture, breaking into offices of the comgressmen and hauling off computers, files, furniture, phones and whatever. Interestingly, they broke into and damaged several offices of PRD congresemen; equal opportunity vandals, I guess. And, of course, the obligatory bus burning took place outside.
Yesterday was the state-wide work stoppage. Many businesses ignored the strike, many others opened but kept curtains closed, and many remained shuttered throughout the day. The big commercial area that stretches from Plaza Oaxaca to southeast of Plaza del Valle closed up tight at about 5:00 PM. I mean it was like a ghost town.
Many newspapers reported that the the city bus drivers participated in the work stoppage. Not willingly, I assure you. The bus companies pulled all of their buses off the streets Monday afternoon and kept them off all day yesterday. The folks in Oaxaca City handled this in an interesting way. Intra-city buses that normally operate outside the city and are not allowed to operate inside came flooding in. Private car owners, especially those with pickup trucks, pasted route signs on their vehicles and began hauling people around. The usual bus fare is 3.5 pesos. Thr private vehicle owners were charging from 3.5 to 10 pesos and would follow the normal bus routes. Some even would deliver passengers all the way to their destinations, no extra charge.
The taxi drivers have all increased their charges 10-25%. They tried to work yesterday also but had to stop at street blockades and submit to some custom paint jobs. The most frequent lettering seen on the taxis was "Fuera URO" which means "Ulises (the governor) get out." I'm not sure it ever dawned on the APPO thugs how many private vehicles were hauling people around. If it had, they probably would have tried to permanently block more streets.
The good news is; nobody got shot yesterday. I don't yet know about this morning.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike, APPO, SNTE
The TEPJF, the 7 magistrates who have the final say in the July 2 presidential election, will, according to this report and others, uphold the victory of Felipe Calderón over Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Their final decisions relative to the 375 formal complaints filed against the election will be announced on their website later today or tomorrow. As stated in the previous post, the magistrates did annull some number of votes but they have decided, as expected, that there was no "massive fraud" as alleged by AMLO and the PRD. This charge was pretty well pooh-poohed by everyone else on earth, from the United Nations down to your friendly neighborhood PANista.
Now, AMLO, who obviously also expected this result, has threatened to set up a parallel government. I wonder from where his tax money will come. He has stated that he no longer has any belief in or loyalty to any Mexican institutions, from the presidency on down. I further wonder if this includes registered political parties, like, uh, the PRD.
The TEPJF has until September 6 to formally certify the winner, but it looks like it's all over but for the formalities.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Mexico election, Felipe Calderón
Among the more than 300 formal objections filed by all parties against the July 2 election, the PAN (Felipe Calderón) and the PRD (Andrés Manuel López Obrador) each asked that a certain number of polls have their entire vote annulled. These requested annullments were for various alleged infractions of Mexico voting laws.
The magistrates who will ultimately decide the winner of the presidential election have been studying these formal objections. In public deleberations which began at 8:00 this morning in Mexico City, the 7 magistrates began debating the recommendations of individual magistrates who were charged with investigating and proposing solutions to all of the objections.
Magistrate Bertha Alfonsina Navarro was assigned 54 of the complaints. In these 54 complaints, the PAN had demanded that the votes be annulled from 433 polls and the PRD demanded the annullment of 1655 polls. Magistrate Navarro has presented her decisions to the full body as follows: She recommends the annullment of 30 of the 433 polls demanded by the PAN and 113 of the 1655 as demanded by the PRD. This will cost the candidates the following vote totals: Felipe Calderón will lose 15,825 votes and AMLO will lose 16,469. If the full body of the election magistrates accepts her recommendation, AMLO will suffer a net loss of 644 votes.
AMLO's biggest losses will occur in two Mexico City suburbs where the PRD assigned local city officials to work in the polls. This is strictly against Mexican election law. Political officials are not allowed to be inside the polls on election day. Private citizens only may man the polls.
In the cases of all the polls which the magistrate recommends that the vote totals stand as reported, she found that the objections from either the PAN or the PRD were unfounded. It would be interesting to see if there was one case anywhere where both the PAN and the PRD demanded that the same poll be annulled. I doubt it but then again it would not surprise me.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Mexico election, AMLO, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Felipe Calderón, PRD, PAN
With hotel occupancy rates at 10%, most folks figured this out long before the State Department went public with a warning.
The warning states, in part, U.S. citizens traveling to Oaxaca City should consider carefully the risk of travel at this time due to the recent increase in violence there.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City has received reports of robberies and assaults in areas of the city not normally known to pose a high crime risk. In light of these increasingly violent demonstrations, U.S. citizens should carefully consider the risks of traveling to Oaxaca City at this time.
Uh, I can vouch for that last part.
We continue the daily exercise of blockades, 12 private radio and TV stations taken over by the anarchists, another teacher shot dead, a government employee shot dead (this latter is being reported by, among others, Oaxaca Charlie, as a teacher - not true), bringing the death toll to 4 since this all started in May. The night before last, a Telcel cellular phone customer service center, very close to my home where 2 young children were sleeping, had its front door and windows shot out, was entered and had about 80 cell phones stolen along with some video game controllers. I am searching the internet for a reasonable explanation of how the importance of shooting up a cell phone company and the stealing of cell phones and video game controllers contributes to this laudable battle against the state governor, oppression, U.S. hegemony, Wal-Mart and Big Macs. Just so that I can understand.
The police, what few there have been for the past month, have all been pulled off the streets. Every night the anarchists stack tires and construction materials stolen from nearby sites and set fire to it all in the streets. They then stand guard throughout the night at these bonfires located at various strategic points around the city. We've got now about a dozen city buses burned and I don't know how many other government owned vehicles. I'm starting to lose count.
The striking teachers' union, the SNTE, and the umbrella support group, the APPO, have now begun to disagree over whether to negotiate or not with the federal government. The teachers say that the governor must go before any talks take place. The APPO has agreed to negotiate with the federal government. Negotiate what?, I would ask. Supposedly the APPO exists to support the SNTE in labor negotiations with the government. What the APPO wants to negotiate, I don't know. Why the government would even talk to the APPO, I don't know. But it appears that it is going to.
Yeah, I know. It's Oaxaca.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca teachers' strike, Oaxaca, Mexico
Roving gangs of APPO thugs are touring the city, going from market to market, store to store, shop to shop and business to business. They are threatening "represalias" -- reprisals -- against anyone or any business that doesn't shut down. Even the big neighborhood markets which are located strategically throughout the city (almost every colonia, or barrio, has its own public market) have been forced to close.
The lady who owns the little store closest to my office and to whom I have never said much more than, "Buenos dias," and the like, almost jumped on me a few minutes ago when I paid a visit. "Señor," she insisted, "stay off of the streets. Brígadas móviles (roving gangs of APPO thugs) are closing everyone down. I will close if they come here."
And here is something interesting. The APPO has gone through the city's center and run out the majority of the street vendors. According to some of the displaced "ambulantes", the APPO has positioned a small number of these merchants at strategic locations in and around the Zócalo and everyone not so chosen has been forced to leave.
Ambulantes, or street merchants, are a huge problem in every Mexican city and town of any size. They move in, block the sidewalks, set up in front of established businesses that pay high rents anyway, and contribute to the local color while also contributing to crime, congestion and environmental trashing. They are forced to pay "contributions" to unscrupulous "street union" bosses for their particular few square feet of sidewalk space and bribes to local cops to leave them alone.
City governments the length and breadth of the country battle with them in confrontations up to and including knock-down, drag-out riots. On the one hand, it is understandable why the city officials try to get them to move. On the other hand, where else do these people have to go? Answer: nowhere.
One of the displaced Oaxaca ambulantes told a reporter, "The APPO is supposed to be representing all of the people but they are no better than the politicians who ran us out."
Our phone and internet cable services may be destined to be cut. On my way back from the little store I saw a young man with a bag of tools using a cordless drill to drill into the front of a big Telmex phone junction box. I do not know what he intends to do. A fellow walking down the sidewalk stopped to watch the man. The driller stopped his work, turned to face his audience, and stared down the observer until he turned and continued on his way. Whoa!Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike
The striking teachers and their APPO supporters have spread out through the city taking over by force radio and television stations. It is being reported that they now have five under their control. They are also reported to have burned or are burning eight city buses and two more police cars.
This is in response to the destruction of the broadcasting equipment inside the public radio and TV studios which the APPO took over on August 1 and renamed Cookpot Radio. One APPO supporter is reported shot in the leg in that confrontation which took place at 3:30 this morning.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca teachers' strike
At 3:30 AM this morning, six truckloads of armed men attacked the public (state owned) radio and television studios of Channel 9. The studios were occupied by the dissident APPO which forcibly took control of the installation some 3 weeks ago. At least one person is reported wounded. The armed men entered the studios with the intent to destroy its broadcast capabilities.
After the armed contingent had left, APPO supporters burned two more city buses which they had disabled outside the studios. The private schools are closing this morning -- the first day of the new school year -- and sending the kids back home. I don't think any public transportation is operating this morning.
Whoopee.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca teachers strike
At Medinah, IL, Tiger Woods and Luke Donald began the final round of this year's PGA Championship tied in first place. Woods shot a cool and mostly trouble free 68 while Donald carded a 74 to finish 6 shots to the rear. Woods made it quick by birdieing the first hole and then rolling in birdie putts on the fifth and sixth. Hasta la vista, baby.
Personally, I wasn't that impressed. Woods was unable to birdie the par 5 tenth hole in four rounds. In fact, besides the three crummy pars he made, he bogeyed the hole on Thursday. When Tiger Woods shoots a par on a par 5 hole, that's the same as a bogey against any mortal golfer, past, present and probably future. So, in other words, he really played the tenth hole at Medinah at 5 over par. What's so great about that?
You can have your Tiger Woods. Give me Young Tom Morris. Go Young Tom! Go Young Tom!
Young Tom Morris, watched by Old Tom Morris, preparing to birdie the
10th at Medinah, IL (IL = Isle of Mulligan for those who don't speak Pict)
The Boston Red Sox, meanwhile, scored 25 runs in four games against the hated New York Yankees. Not bad, 25 runs in 4 games. Trouble was, Boston gave up 47 runs in those same 4 games. You don't win many games being outscored 2:1. And Boston didn't win any.
Even if the Red Sox manage to salvage the last of their rare 5 game series with the Yanks, a dubious prospect at best, they'll still stagger away 4.5 games behind. This race is over. The Yankees, victims of a slew of injuries early in the season and still saddled with 4 potential starters out, are only 1/2 game behind the Mets and 4 games behind Detroit for the best record in baseball. If and when starting pitcher Pavano returns along with heavy bats Matsui and Sheffield, the Yanks are gonna to be tough to beat.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Tiger Woods, New York Yankees
Perhaps sensing that he did, in fact, lose the July 2 presidential election, something which most of the rest of the world recognizes, Andrés Manuel López Obrador is turning shrill. In his weekly speech to a dwindling number of supporters, AMLO accused the election magistrates, the TEPJF, of receiving "barrels of bribe money and offers of higher positions" in exchange for declaring Felipe Calderon the new Mexican president.
Here is today's new list of charges made by AMLO:
- Members of the TEPJF are receiving barrels of money and offers of higher positions and now they must decide whether to take the high road of truth, justice and the
American Mexican way or take the low road of treachery. - President Vicente Fox is a liar and a cheat.
- President Fox is a hypocrite because he goes to Mass and to confession every Sunday yet has tried to destroy AMLO politically on at least 3 occasions.
- President Fox trods on democracy by allowing the government to continue in the hands of a minority.
- President Fox has negotiated with the rich and powerful as well as with the Mafia to retain power in the hands of, uh, all the aforementioned.
- Felipe Calderon is a dummy and is being controlled like a puppet.
- The federal government forced PRI and PRD state governors into supporting Calderon with vote quotas and financial contributions.
- The Washington Post's Watergate investigation was child's play in comparison to the massive fraud against AMLO now being revealed by AMLO himself ( responding "with all due respect" to last week's WaPo editorial calling him "messianic" and a "threat to real democracy").
- Repeated the 3 times per week charge that the media is out to get him.
- And lastly, and most hilariously, that Professor Elba Esther Gordillo, national head of the teachers union, is preparing an armed group of riot police to forcibly remove AMLO and his supporters from Mexico City's Zócalo.
And all of this without offering one shred of evidence, I might add.
Generalissima Professor Elba Esther GordilloPlease visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks!TAGS: Mexico election, Presidente Vicente Fox, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, AMLO, Elba Esther Gordillo
Early this morning, the government sent out work crews to start painting over the anti-government graffiti that's smeared all over the city. That aerosal handiwork by the striking teachers and APPO now includes the walls of Santo Domingo.
In response, the newly named "Radio Cacerola", or Cookpot Radio, called upon APPO and SNTE mobile brigades to paint over the government's paint-over of the original graffiti, which in many cases was painted over previous government paint-overs. You got all that?
This may now go down in history as the "La Guerra de Pintas", or the Paint War, or maybe even War Paint, although "The Graffiti War" sounds better in Spanish -- La Guerra de Grafiti. It may someday even rival the infamous Pastry War (English) in the war of silly Mexican-named wars.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike
That is to say, another striking teacher was shot, this time up near Etla, another march of thousands in the streets demanding the head of the king governor, the 4 main highways to and from the city being blocked off and on all day and some 80,000 workers contributing to a work stoppage all day. At least there were very few people downtown.
This work stoppage thing is interesting. The way it operates is that all the workers report to their respective jobs but, after they get there, they don't do anything. That's why I had to bag my own groceries at the Gigante supermarket when the store was filled with red-shirted employees. I thought that was astonishing. There were almost as many employees in the store, at least around the checkout lanes, as there were customers. But nobody would bag my groceries. Waaaaaaaaah! Unfortunately, Gigante management had managed to get enough cashiers to work that I did not have to check myself out, thereby being unable to take advantage of some serious discounting.
The teacher was shot by someone at the northwestern highway blockade. Other teachers gave chase but the assailants escaped. I have it on good authority from my close friend Pablo Pérez that the shooter was pissed off at being stuck in traffic for hours when he was sure that his wife was going to get pregnant today and he wanted desperately to be here when it happened. The governor was, of course, held personally responsible.
I continue to receive emails from people asking whether it is safe to visit. I can only reiterate what I have stated several times in the past. If you don't happen to be anywhere near where the bullets are flying, you have nothing to worry about, kind of like downtown Detroit or East L.A. or even Baghdad. Furthermore, if you do find yourself in the middle of a fracas but are not positioned in the flight path of a 9mm lead projectile, you'll still probably be OK. My question would be, "Why would anyone consider coming here right now?" This is not a nice friendly place and there is no police protection whatsoever throughout some 50 blocks in the city center.
A downtown merchants association has been formed which includes some 350 individual store and shop owners as well as about 1000 people who rent the various stalls, booths and cubicles in the two big downtown markets. They are demanding that the police answer calls to the area. The police say they are responding to calls to within some 20 blocks of the downtown but the merchants (and yours truly) say it ain't so.
The police are blaming their lack of response to the fact that the emergency services center -- 066 here, like your 911 -- was attacked last week by APPO and put out of commission. The real reason they aren't answering what few calls that do get through is that a call to arrest a shoplifter would have to answered by 2500 heavily armed federal troops. That's the only way they could get into the city's center and get out again in one piece . . . maybe.
The four main highway blockades are being operated thusly. The protesters block the highways for 2 hours and then allow the stacked up traffic to move for 30 minutes. The blockades are set up east of the city to block the highways from the isthmus, the two southbound highways from the beaches and the northwest highway from Puebla - Mexico City. The luxury busline ADO canceled all trips to the city from, well, everywhere, I guess.
IMHO, these strikers, protesters, anarchists, socialists, communists and assorted hangers-on are making a big mistake. They are blockading the highways into the city. They should instead be blocking the exits. Once you're here, here you stay. Then they should include in the blockade the airport and all the banks and money exchange centers. They should block all the ATM machines 24/7. Now you'd have a situation where no visitors could leave, they couldn't get money to pay for their forcible extended stays in the local inns or for food or to have their underwear laundered.
Then, in a very short period, you'd have, instead of a few thousand striking teachers and APPO members, tens of thousands of irate people, from tourists to truck drivers, all hungry and wearing smelly underwear, marching in the streets and shouting, "Down with governor what's-his-name! We wanna go home."
IMHO.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers strike
Whenever there is something in the news that is of great national import, I try to avoid reading the blogs of "the usual suspects". At least for awhile. I at first search around for the so-called "experts" in the subject matter at hand, those with some experience in the matter, or those that have "been there, done that", or those who not only "talk the talk" but also "walk the walk". Even at that, one has to carefully judge and weigh everything one reads while keeping the "agenda" of the writers in mind at all times.
For instance, before going all ga-ga over the arrest of the fellow in Thailand for the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, I skated around and read as many comments from prosecutors and defense attorneys as I could find, or had the time to read. They are almost unanimous; something doesn't smell right about this. Is this guy a kook or did he really do it? One said, as best as I can remember, "I hope they (Colorado prosecutors) have a lot more than just this guy's confession."
The federal court decision just handed down which ruled that the NSA's domestic surveillance program was unconstitutional is just such a matter of great national import. So, my first reaction was to consult the experts. When consulting any of the experts, my biggest challenge is to find those who do not dig so deeply into the minutiae of the issue at hand so as to cause my eyes to roll back into my head and cause me to become, er, um, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
I will confess to having read Jeff Goldstein's opinion, also. Prior to going there, however, I was 99.9999% sure of what his opinion would be. But so what? Jeff is a former teacher of English and no more qualified to comment on the court's decision than I. He just writes a lot better. Therefore, I avoided Ace, Allah, Michelle and all of the other "usual suspects". I eventually got to all of them as well as others, but not before I read the opinions of the constitutional lawyers and professors.
The federal court's decision has now been reviewed by Prof. Eugene Volokh (also writing here and again here), conspirator Prof. Dale Carpenter, conspirator Orin Kerr and Jack Balkin. This small group, almost unanimously opposed to the executive branch's NSA domestic surveillance program, is unanimously in agreement on the federal court judge's decision. It's a pig and pigs can't fly.
The unanimous opinion of these legal beagles is that the judge wrote a poorly worded opinion, unfounded in constitutional law, filled with personal opinion and invective and that her decision is a ship heading for the shoals. And most of these writers are opposed to the NSA program and believe it to be unconstitutional and unlawful. Imagine what the right wing of the legal and constitutional law brigade are saying.
Sheesh! Even the Washington Post says the decision is crap.
As I understand it, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has already put the kabosh on the district court's ruling. However, I cannot find any verification of this.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: NSA domestic surveillance, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, Volokh Conspiracy
The Mexican election magistrates who must certify the July 2 election results have finished their work in the legislative arena. AMLO's PRD coalition lost a House seat (called the Cámara de Diputados). The Magistrates voted unanimously to throw out the results of 6 polls in a district from Mexico state because the PRD assigned city officials to those polls on election day. That's a violation of Mexican election law. It was considered by the magistrates that the presence of PRD city officials inside the polls on election day tended to influence or coerce voters into casting their ballots for the PRD. A PRI coalition candidate was declared the winner.
The Mexican House of Representatives, as far as the three major parties are concerned, will consist of 206 seats for the PAN, 126 for the PRD and 104 for the PRI. I don't know how many seats the little fringe parties will occupy but it is an irrelevant number.
The Senate election on July 2 saw no changes from the July 2 vote. The Senate will consist of 52 seats for the PAN, 32 for the PRD, 35 for the PRI, 4 for the PVEM, 1 for the Nueva Alianza, 2 for Convergencia and 2 for the PT.
Tomorrow the real fun starts. The magistrates begin reviewing the partial recount and all the complaints, charges and counter-charges against the results of the presidential vote and the just completed recount itself. Stay tuned.
Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Mexico election
After the prerequisite march and disruption of traffic, the union representing health care workers in state run hospitals and clinics announced a work stoppage "until Governor Ortiz Ruiz clears out."
I guess that doctors and nurses are not affected. The work stoppage seems to include outpatient care, administration, social services and vehicle maintenace.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike
From CNN:"I want to have only very limited comment on today's arrest because I feel it is extremely important to not only let the justice system operate to its conclusion in an orderly manner, but also to avoid feeding the type of media speculation that my wife and I were subjected to for so many years.
"I do want to say, however, that the investigation of the individual arrested today in connection with JonBenet's death was discussed with Patsy and me by the Boulder district attorney's office prior to Patsy's death in June. So Patsy was aware that authorities were close to making an arrest in the case and had she lived to see this day, would no doubt have been as pleased as I am with today's development almost 10 years after our daughter's murder. Words cannot adequately express my gratitude for the efforts of Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy and the members of her investigative team."
Man, I really hope they've got the guy. I checked out several other sites with this news but CNN is the only one I found that says the Colorado authorities are definitely bringing the guy back to Colorado.
If this turns out, I feel really sad that Patsy Ramsey did not live to see it. On the other hand, I could not be happier for John Ramsey and for his son, Burke, both of whom have been accused of being responsible for the murder of the little girl.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: JonBenet Ramsey
At least 16,000 students have returned to public schools on time or almost on time. The Colegio de Estudios Científicos y Tecnológicos de Oaxaca (Cecyteo), with 90 satellite campuses and 16 thousand students, opened the school year yesterday in a ceremony in Mitla (one of my favorite places). This system serves the isthmus up into the mountains which would include the Triquis. The indigenous Triquis are numbered as among the poorest of the poor in the state of Oaxaca.
The head of the teachers union for this school system, Julio Martín Díaz Sánchez, said that, while respectful of the SNTE movement, he did not want to jeopordize the education of such a large number of students. Apparently a labor agreement was worked out between the school's president, José Esteban Melchor de la Cruz Santiago, and the union, the STSCECYTEO, that allowed the 90 regional campuses to reopen. I cannot get any of the Oaxaca govenment websites to open this morning, so I don't know haw many grades are served by this school system. I would suppose it serves grades 1 through 12, but I don't know (it's not a college or university system).
I'm not sure how all this is going to play out with the SNTE leadership which has vowed that no schools will reopen. The STSCECYTEO was listed here, as late as last Thursday, as a participant in the Oaxaca strife. Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca teachers strike, Oaxaca, Mexico
Here is the latest that I can find on the partial recount of Mexico's July 2 presidential election.
Polls recounted: 11,838
Calderon: -6769 votes
López Obrador: +304 votes
AMLO gain: +7073 votes
Avg. gain per poll: +0.5975 votes
If we extrapolate the AMLO gain per poll over the 131,000 polls utilized in the election, and we say that AMLO would gain the same number of votes per poll, he would recover 128,000 votes. He lost the election by about 260,000, so he still loses.
I am not sure that the TEPJF (the election magistrates who are hearing the complaints and who ordered the partial recount) can extrapolate in such a manner. They are not allowed to do that by Mexican law. In fact, there were some 15,000 polls that AMLO did not challenge. In addition, some of AMLO's challenges to other polls were thrown out as being meritless. By law, the polls which were unchallenged as well as those unsuccessfully challenged cannot have their results changed or re-interpreted in any manner. The original count must stand.
The only hope that AMLO now has, IMHO, is that the judges may decide that the errors that they saw are indicative of an unacceptably high error rate. They could then, I would further suppose, order a full recount of every poll. The one number that I do not know is what percentage of the polls had counting errors. The PAN is braying that it was only 2%. I find that difficult to believe. Of course, AMLO's PRD has been claiming for a couple of days that he gained more than 15,000 votes in the partial recount. I didn't believe that either and that information now appears to have been, er, mis-information, possibly dis-information, at any rate bad information.
The only numbers that are or will be meaningful will be those released officially by the TEPJF. And that won't happen for a few more days, next Sunday, I think. I hope I can come somewhere close to live blogging the official TEPJF announcement, but the PGA may supercede the TEPJF, if you catch my drift (Tigre Bosques).
There are still at least a couple of thousand challenged ballots which are in the hands of the TEPJF in Mexico City so the numbers above are not final. Remember the "smiley face" ballot? These preliminary numbers are, however, a good indication of how this may go.
UPDATE: I have found a fellow, a researcher for the CIDE (Center for Economic Research and Education) who claims that only 1% of the total vote suffered "irregularities". Professor Javier Aparicio said in a radio interview that he had analysed the error incidence rate in polls from both PRD and PAN strongholds and reached the conclusion that the error rate was the same. For whatever that may mean.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Mexico election, Mexico election recount, AMLO, Felipe Calderon
Some healthy reading between the lines will be required.
I think that Oaxaca's Governor Ruiz Ortiz is ill. He is a diabetic and I think he has suffered a flareup. The ongoing stress, loss of sleep and poor diet during these past 3 months have all taken their toll.
I do not think he is even in Oaxaca. I think he has gone to Mexico City to seek treatment.
I think that his doctors, out of concern for his health, have recommended that he seek other employment.
I think that he will be replaced by an interim governor, probably Heliodoro Díaz Escarraga, Secretario General de Gobierno (Government General Secretary) to fill out the rest of the term. Or, there might be a special election called.
In any event, whether at the end of the governor's normal term or in a special election, the man chosen to become the next governor is a fellow who was the city's mayor as a PANista, then helped put together a coalition of the PAN, PRD and CD, was defeated in the governor's race by Ruiz Ortiz in 2005, and got elected to the national senate as a PRD candidate this year. His name would be Senator elect Gabino Cué Monteagudo, party of . . . pick one.
It remains to be seen if all of this will be accepted by the striking teachers and the anarchists in the streets. The striking teachers have refused to negotiate with Díaz Escarraga. He is a recent appointee, having replaced Jorge Franco Vargas, one of the 5 government officials whose heads have been demanded by the striking teachers and the APPO. Three others all fell on the same day as did Franco Vargas. This was a sop to the teachers thrown out by Governor Ruiz Ortiz in an attempt to end the crisis and get them off his back. It didn't work. The teachers and APPO want the governor gone also.
Looks like they're about to get their wish . . . if Ruiz Ortiz's doctors have their way.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca teachers strike, Oaxaca, Mexico, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, Gabino Cué Monteagudo, Oaxaca governor
The Ejército Popular Revolucionario (EPR) has weighed in on the increasing violence in Oaxaca. The EPR, formed in 1996 in answer to the Aguas Blancas Massacre, hasn't been too active lately. The group, financed by bank robberies and kidnappings, was responsible for 100-150 deaths of police, military and unlucky civilians in 1996 and 1997 in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tabasco, Guanajuato and Mexico City. They aren't too active in Chiapas because they don't get along well with the Zapatistas of the EZLN. The EPR is thought to be lead by Marxist - Leninist Europeans, refugees from the old Red Brigades and Bader-Meinhof.
The EPR announced that it would soon make a statement or take actions in support of the APPO and the striking teachers in Oaxaca. The EPR statement did address the recent appeal for calm and dialogue by the Catholic church, saying, "Let no one say they are surprised, let no one cry out to the heavens, let no one think they will solve these outbreaks of social violence with prayers and fasting."
Well that's certainly good news for the authorities.
On a lighter note, the rank and file of the striking teachers union, the SNTE, has just about abandoned the cause. They are ignoring their leadership's threats of fines, loss of seniority and unwanted assignments and staying away in droves. The downtown blockade, which at one time covered some 53 city blocks, has shrunk to about 20. Of those 20 blocks, only about 7 are covered day and night by the tent city. Many teachers have said they will return to their classrooms next Monday, having only missed the first week of school.
The rank and file discontent is over the violence and vandalism perpetrated by the APPO as well as unhappiness that the SNTE's original goals of better pay, working conditions and major investment in education reforms have all been lost in the nose-to-nose confrontation with the governor. The downtown occupying force, which at one time may have numbered 10,000, is down to about 500 diehard holdouts. They are outnumbered in the Zócalo by the street venders on most days.
This is not to say that all is well. As the striking teachers who had and still have legitimate grievances are moving out, the APPO has just about taken over the fight. If the EPR joins the mix, it could become yet more poisonous.
Note: The link to the Aguas Blancas Massacre above is to a grainy video of the shooting. This video is clear enough to show that the peasant farmers who were attacked were unarmed at the time. The state government released a video after the massacre which was obviously edited. In it, the government first spread around weapons of every type and description among the bodies, then tried to pass it off as legitimate self defense on the part of the state police. The video that you will see is the original which was smuggled to the press by an unknown member of President Ernesto Zedillo's staff. Yet another example, I think, of Ernesto Zedillo's attempts to cut the legs out from under his own ruling PRI party.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca teachers strike, APPO, SNTE, EPR
Here are some of the latest reasons why Mexico must export its people to the United States, legally or otherwise:
The Oaxacan Institute for Migrant Services (IOAM) announced that, through June, the amount of money that has been sent back from the United States to the state of Oaxaca is $585 million USD, an increase of 23 percent over last year. The IOAM says that this places the state of Oaxaca in eighth place nationally. The top three states in receipt of remissions from the United States are Michoacan, Jalisco and Guanajuato. The total remissions received in the country, through June, were $11.425 billion USD, an overall increase of 18 percent.
These remissions, or cash sent back home by immigrants living in the United States, represent the second most important source of foreign funds arriving in Mexico. Oil exports are number one, direct foreign investment is number three and tourism is number four.
The IOAM says that the lion's share of this money is used for living expenses by family members still stuck in Mexico. A much lesser pecentage is used to acquire homes and an even smaller percentage, one that fluctuates between only 2 and 8 percent, is directly invested in business here. The IOAM said that it is seeking ways to help divert more of that incoming cash into direct investment so that people don't depend so much on the remissions for their living expenses.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Mexico immigration, illegal immigration, remissions
Two more Muslim "students" have been arrested in Marietta, Ohio after buying 600 TracFones and reselling them to someone in Dearborn, Michigan. The two are being held under $200,000 bond. One of the pair, Osama Sabhi Abulhassan, 20, told a reporter in 2002, He’s fighting for a cause like the United States is. But he’s killing innocent people, and that makes him appear to be a bad guy.
Ah, yes. Appearances can be deceiving, no?
Assistant Washington County Prosecutor Susan Vessels said, Mr. Abulhassan made a statement to officers that he knew what they were doing was wrong and that he knew no one would ever use over 600 phones for legal purposes. (He also stated) he did not know for sure, but that he believed the phones and chips were being shipped overseas.
A lawyer for the pair said, What concerns me is that if his name was Joe Smith and he went in to purchase three to six cell phones somewhere we wouldn’t be here. But because of his appearance and name we’re going to say, "Oh my gosh, he’s a terrorist."
Well, yeah.
Note: Originally posted as Marietta, GA. Thanks to Ric for pointing out the really stupid mistake.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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The three Muslim "students" from Texas who were caught in Caro, Michigan with 1000 cell phones in their van are being held on state terrorism charges. Among those charges is "surveillance of a vulnerable target (that target allegedly being the Mackinac Bridge)." This report says that the men will face no federal charges. I wonder why since they were obviously engaged in interstate terror activity.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: cell phone terror, Caro, Michigan
Paris Hilton was bitten yesterday by a kinky Jew.
What's that? It was a kinky-jew?
No?
It was a kinkajou?
She was bitten by her own pet kinkajou?
Well then, just never mind.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Paris Hilton, Mel Gibson, kinkajou
Yesterday, during a march by hundreds of APPO supporters, one marcher was shot dead on Calle Niños Heroes. I didn't blog about this yesterday because news reports were wildly divergent as to exactly what happened.
It now appears that, as the marchers passed a house which was being used as a warehouse for a nearby medical clinic, rocks were thrown at the marchers from the house. As a group of marchers approached the house, gunfire rang out. A marcher, a mechanic and husband of a striking teacher, fell mortally wounded with a bullet in the heart Several other protesters were wounded, although none seriously.
The marchers stormed the house where they took 4 men prisoner. They detained another man at a house next door. They then set fire to the medical supplies inside the house, burned several cars outside including an ambulance that belonged to the clinic and burned another city bus.
In a related note, the state's attorney general called in the rector of Benito Juárez University to demand to know why university security had allowed the takeover of the university's radio station as well as the torching of hijacked buses on university property. If the full power of city and state police can't maintain security, I don't know how the authorities can expect the overwhelmed university security staff to do it. If I were the rector, I would tell them, "Hey, come on in and take them out. I'll hold the gate open for you."Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike
We're in the third day of Mexico's historic vote recount. All major news sources are reporting no meaningful changes to the original outcome as predicted by the preliminary results released back on July 2 and 3. The most glaring glitch so far has been 1500 ballots challenged by AMLO's PRD representative in one district. He charges that the 1500 ballots were all marked by the same person. Those ballots have been sealed and sent to Mexico City where the 7 TEPJF magistrates will review them and decide their fate.
The PRD is slowing down the process, and that's to be expected. The PRD's goal is to try to cast enough doubt on the original vote count to force the TEPJF to order a 100% country-wide recount. So the PRD has to note and challenge every tiny discrepancy that they can find. In spite of this, most notably in Yucatan, the PRD reps have been cooperative enough to allow the recount in those districts to proceed quite rapidly.
In others, however, confrontation has been the norm. On Tuesday, in one district, the PRD rep challenged every PAN vote where the "X" marked by the voter ran out of the rectangle. The PAN rep got so disgusted that he told the magistrate he would proceed to challenge every PRD vote in a likewise manner until the magistrate annulled the entire district's vote. The PRD rep backed down after a 15 minute negotiation.
In another district yesterday, the PRD rep challenged a PAN vote because the voter had gone back over the "X" a second time. The frustrated magistrate grabbed the ballot, erased the second mark, and then said, "Ok, is that better now?" He allowed the vote to be counted. The PRD rep raised such a stink that the magistrate had him dragged out of the recount area by the military. They waited for a replacement and then carried on the recount when the new PRD rep arrived.
In yet another district, things bogged down because the PRD rep challenged a null vote where the voter had written "Si" in the PRD rectangle and "No" in that of the PAN. AMLO's man wanted that vote counted. The magistrate ruled that the vote was, indeed, null, because the law says a ballot may only be marked in one rectangle and the mark must be an "X". After an argument, the ballot was sent to Mexico City for the tribunal's ruling. This same PRD rep later challenged a PAN vote because the voter, after marking the ballot correctly, added a smiley face. The smiley face ballot is on its way to Mexico City also.
In one district, the magistrate is trying to keep everything as light and running as smoothly as possible. He opened yet another sealed paquete and said, "Look. Nothing in my hands, nothing up my sleeve," as he displayed the envelopes removed from the paquete. The PRD rep said, " I know you guys are just waiting for me to get careless." Later, after counting all the votes in an envelope, the magistrate said, "There. Count'em again or is that ok? You tell me, I just count." Then, at the lunch break, the PRD rep asked a soldier to stand guard over the envelopes. The PAN rep said, "Hey, just take them with you. We don't want to have to do this again, ballot by ballot and envelope by envelope."
One change is being noted by some of the news media. On Tuesday, the first day of the recount, many of the district headquarters where the recounts were taking place were surrounded by AMLO's supporters. Chanting, "Recount them all," and "Vote by vote," they carried signs and banners and marched or stood around all day. Yesterday there were far fewer of them and today the media is reporting that very few have returned. One lady who sells bread on the street outside a district headquarters said, "This is not going to change anything. This is just another big expense for the town."
And so it goes.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Mexico election, Mexico election recount, AMLO, PRD, PAN
The post's title is also the title of an article published in The Telegraph today, written by British journalist Andrew Gimson. The article is short and sweet, making it very difficult to excerpt, but I'll try to find the highest of the high points.
Americans will die for liberty
The Americans are more old-fashioned than us, and what is equally admirable, they are not ashamed of being old-fashioned. They know Churchill was a great man, so they put his house on the map. There is a kind of Englishman to whom this sort of behaviour seems painfully unsophisticated.
We are inclined, in our snobbish way, to dismiss the Americans as a new and vulgar people, whose civilisation has hardly risen above the level of cowboys and Indians. Yet the United States of America is actually the oldest republic in the world, with a constitution that is one of the noblest works of man.
While Europe has engaged in the headlong and frankly rather immature pursuit of novelty - how many constitutions have the nations of Europe been through in this time? - the Americans have held to the ideals enunciated more than 200 years ago by their founding fathers.
The quiet solicitude that Americans show for the comfort of their visitors, and the tact with which they make one feel at home, can only be described as gentlemanly. These graceful manners, so often overlooked by brash European tourists, whisper the last enchantments of an earlier and more dignified age, when liberty was not confused with licence.
Again some Europeans will give an unkind smile. All this sounds so Puritan, so naïve and so self-righteous. We cannot help feeling that the Americans ought to have been able to settle their quarrel (the Civil War) without killing each other, and, while we cannot defend the institution of slavery, we wonder whether the North had the right to impose its will by force.
These are vain quibbles. The North went to war and was victorious.
The Americans are prepared to use force in pursuit of what they regard as noble aims. It is yet another respect in which they are rather old-fashioned. They are patriots who venerate their nation and their flag.
The idea has somehow gained currency in Britain that America is an essentially peaceful nation. Quite how this notion took root, I do not know. Perhaps we were unduly impressed by the protesters against the Vietnam war.
It is an idea that cannot survive a visit to the National Museum of American History in Washington, where one is informed that the "price of freedom" is over and over again paid in blood.
But when the Americans speak of freedom, we should not imagine, in our cynical and worldly-wise way, that they are merely using that word as a cloak for realpolitik. They are not above realpolitik, but they also mean what they say.
These formidable people think freedom is so valuable that it is worth dying for.
You really need to read it all. The Telegraph offers its readers the opportunity to make comments on many of the newspaper's articles. I sent The Telegraph a comment. I wrote,
Thank you.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: United States of America
A good look at paquetes ready for recount in Monterrey
There is really not much to update. The recount of 11,839 polls of the more than 131,000 has, so far, not changed anything. As an example, in the District 20 recount in Iztapalapa (Mexico City suburb), AMLO gained 6 votes while Calderon lost 9, for a net AMLO gain of 15, but in District 5 of Tlalpan (Mexico City suburb), Calderón gained 21 votes and López Obrador gained 4 for a net gain by Calderon of 17 votes. This is how it is pretty much going all across the country.
AMLO has reacted swiftly to the bad news, convening his people for a little speech yesterday afternoon in the Zócalo where he maintained that he rejects the recount. He insisted that the PRD was only participating so that his opponents could not claim that he had no respect for Mexican election law. Har.
AMLO has made it a point to buttress his accusations of fraud with, as AMLO says, his opponent's, Felipe Calderon's, refusal to agree to a full recount. A few left-wing commenters on this blog have also used that argument. Let me try, once again and at the risk of sounding redundant, to explain why this is a false argument.
Under Mexican law, all the candidates, the president, the Supreme Court justices, the drug cartel leaders and everybody else up to and including Mickey Mouse could have agreed to a recount and it would have made no difference. The election magistrates cannot, under the law, order recounts except under tightly defined rules. Those rules are designed to prevent the opening of sealed ballot containers except under very stringently defined circumstances. Just because someone, or even everyone, agrees that a recount would be a nice thing to do, the law, except in some very special cases, does not permit it.
Here is an example that may help you. Let's take a civil court case in a USA court. The jury renders its verdict. Neither side in the case likes the verdict. So both the plantiffs and the defendants in the case agree that they want a new trial. They tell the judge, "We've agreed that we want a new trial because we didn't like the results of the last one." What would the judge say? "Get lost, and quickly," is what he would say.
Let's say that the election magistrates had arbitrarily ruled for a 100% recount. All it would take would be for any Mexican citizen, or, more likely the PRI, to challenge that ruling and the election magistrates would be forced under the law to vacate their own decision. No magistrate or group of magistrates, in Mexico or the USA or anywhere else for that matter, are going to put themselves in such a position.
Mexican election law is also designed to avoid the ballot containers - the paquetes - from ever being assembled in one place at the same time. They are spread out all over the country. This is to preclude the possibility of the type of massive fraud that AMLO is claiming occurred.
Here is some of the silliness being perpetrated by AMLO's recount watchers. When the very first paquete was opened and recounted yesterday and it was found that Calderon had gained a vote, a PRD spokesman immediately went before the press to claim that this one vote error demonstrated that a 100% recount was necessary.
In a district up north somewhere yesterday, all the players arrived at the warehouse where the paquetes were stored. The PRD representative immediately began crying foul because the warehouse had two doors, both sealed, but the seal on one door had been signed by the the District Committee president and vice president, while the seal on the other door had been signed by those two as well as each of the party representatives who were present when the seals were placed. "Fraud," cried the PRD rep.
The presiding magistrate listened to this folly, then said that, since neither seal had been broken and neither door had been opened, the objection was denied. You don't overturn an election because of alleged missing signatures that may or may not have been required on a seal that obviously hasn't been broken.
In reading the various news reports throughout the day yesterday and this morning, it is beginning to appear that many of the mistakes being found were human error caused by exhaustion. On July 2, the poll workers, about 1 million of them, all had to get up at the crack of dawn and report to their polls, about 131,000 of them. They worked all day conducting the vote. Then, at the closure of the polls, they worked, in many cases, all through the night to count the votes, fill out the proper paperwork and then affix all the proper signatures and seals and to complete all the other mundane requirements of Mexican election law. Lots of mistakes were made.
In one case yesterday, a paquete was found to possibly have 4 missing ballots. Between the total ballots reported cast, the total ballots available and the balance of ballots not cast, 4 came up missing. Where are they? Nobody knows. Were they cast for anybody? Nobody knows. Should the poll workers have realized that their counts didn't match? Probably. And maybe they all did, but were so tired by that point that everyone just signed off on the results, sealed the paquete and went home to bed.
These are, however, isolated cases that have turned up during the recount. Will they be enough for the magistrates to order a full recount? I doubt it because, under Mexican law, the errors would have to be sufficient as to indicate that the final result of the election might be affected. If, at the end of all this, which is scheduled for Sunday, the recount results do not appear to have materially changed the outcome as originally reported from these 11,839 precincts, the magistrates will probably be prepared to call the election for Felipe Calderon.
As one recount watcher reported from Vera Cruz, "We've recounted about 90% (of 116 precincts ordered recounted). In some precincts the PRD gained one or two votes but in others they lost one or two. So we're right where we started."Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Mexico election, Mexico election recount
Statement from Senators Reid and Schumer
Democratic Leader Harry Reid and DSCC Chair Chuck Schumer issued the following joint statement today on the Connecticut Senate race:
"The Democratic voters of Connecticut have spoken and chosen Ned Lamont as their nominee. Both we and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) fully support Mr. Lamont’s candidacy. Congratulations to Ned on his victory and on a race well run.
"Joe Lieberman has been an effective Democratic Senator for Connecticut and for America. But the perception was that he was too close to George Bush and this election was, in many respects, a referendum on the President more than anything else. The results bode well for Democratic victories in November and our efforts to take the country in a new direction."
Translation: Oh, Shit! I isn't equal to D?Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks!TAGS: Joe Lieberman
Reporters and broadcasters were attacked while trying to make their way to the press area assigned to them for AMLO's big speech in front of the election magistrate's offices. And what's more, according to at least one journalist, it's been going on for a long time, back through the campaign.
She said that AMLO's handlers force the reporters to pass through the mobs of AMLO's supporters in order to get to their assigned areas. As they pass, or attempt to pass, they are subjected to insults, foul language, assaults and damage and theft of their equipment. In this latest incident, a reporter from Instituto Mexicano de la Radio (IMER) had his cell phone ripped out of his hands in the middle of a live report to his station, a reporter for El Economista, Elena Michel, was shouted at, punched and was tossed into a mud puddle along with a photographer who had landed there seconds before, two cameramen from Telefórmula who were trying to transmit had to run to security police for protection and a reporter for TV Azteca suspended his live broadcast because of the filthy language.
Here is what the El Economista reporter, Elena Michel, had to say: "I understand the manipulative speech of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the effect he tries to unleash upon his people because he has always argued that everyone and everything is against him. For that reason I can tolerate and handle the aggression and the insults of his followers because so many of them follow his every word blindly and he has now added the media to the vast plot against him and his vehemence to attain the presidency."
"But what I cannot tolerate is the logistics and security team of Andrés Manuel López Obrador intentionally exposing the physical integrity of the reporters who cover his day-to-day activities."
She described the attitude of AMLO's logistics team, headed by Nicolás Mollinedo, as irresponsible and said that such an attitude "has been characteristic of the entire campaign of López Obrador and was on display when Mollinedo's second in command, someone who calls himself "Puma", encountered us soaking wet (from being thrown in the puddle) and just smiled at us ironically."
According to this report from El Economista, its reporters Sheila Amador, Humberto Ortiz and Hugo Salazar have also been victims of aggression from AMLO's team and his supporters.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Mexico election, AMLO, Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Ok, an update from Oaxaca. Last night at about 10:00 PM, a group of youths tossed a gasoline bomb into a hijacked bus parked inside the grounds of Benito Juárez University. That's the second bus torched at the university.
Yesterday morning, a group of masked thugs attacked the emergency channel studio (066, like our 911) and did sufficient damage to cause it to suspend operations. The emergency services number 066 remains out of operation. The thugs also got into the station's parking lot, slashing tires and painting slogans on cars. They warned the employees that if the station was restarted "We'll be back".
This morning, two thugs fired two bullets into the offices of Las Noticias, a virulent anti-government newspaper. One female employee was hospitalized with a bullet fragment in her left breast. The government has managed to more or less retain the high ground throughout this insurrection, but incidents like this don't help. If the shooter isn't pursued with vigor, the government loses a lot of credibility with this one.
The state's attorney general announced that the leaders of the APPO insurrection are well known and that arrest warrants have been filled out against them for vandalism of public and private property, assaults and robbery. She added that two leaders of a "guerilla movement", the name of which she did not specify, were known to now be involved in the strife in the city. She named those two as Erangelio Mendoza y Rogelio Garfias. Mendoza is an ex-leader of the SNTE and now president of the "Popular City Government" of a burg called Santa Maria Jalapa Del Marques. He and his followers took over the town hall but were thrown out by Preventive Police back in May. Garfias is identified as one of the most radical members of the SNTE leadership and disagreed with the teachers' temporary return to classes.
She also said that there were many arrest warrants outstanding for the leaders of the teachers' union, but the exercize of those warrants was on hold in lieu of "dialogue and negotiation". I would add that the exercize of those warrants might also be on hold because the state doesn't stand a bat's chances in hell of serving them right now.
The occupied university radio staion was knocked off the air last night when 3 subjects threw acid on the transmission lines. The three were all captured by APPO elements and are being held at the university before being turned over to authorities. The three were identified as Carlos Alberto Paz Vázquez, Salvador Jiménez Baltazar y René Vázquez Castillejos and two of them are pictured here.
APPO sympathizers took control of the toll plaza outside Oaxaca on the main highway to Puebla at 10:00 this morning. They were allowing traffic to pass but asking that the tolls be put in their pockets.
APPO supporters in Huajapan de León, for the sixth time in a month, took over the studios of Radio XEOU, Stereo Sensation, to demand money, the resignation of the governor, and AMLO's coronation.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca, Mexico, Oaxaca teachers' strike, APPO, SNTE
The Mexican election magistrates, the TEPJF, is overseeing a recount of some 11,839 ballot boxes which began at 9:00 this morning. Notimex is reporting that very first ballot box opened and recounted cost AMLO 1 vote.
This probably will not go well for AMLO. In the days immediately following the election on July 2, some 3000 ballot boxes were opened and the votes recounted. This was done on orders from the Mexican election commission's various district headquarters in response to anomalies found on tally sheets. In that exercise, PAN candidate Felipe Calderon lost 10,000 votes due to incorrect tally sheets. AMLO lost 12,000. That was a net loss of 2000 votes for AMLO.
I would expect that the recounting of the votes contained in the 11,839 ballot boxes to, more or less, duplicate those original recounts.
For those of you who are not familiar with Mexico's election procedures, here is a brief primer.
There are approximately 131,000 polls around the country divided into 300 districts. The polls are maintained much the same way that ours are. They are staffed by employees of the IFE (Mexican election commission) as well as representatives of all the political parties involved.
Here is where the Mexican system differs from ours, and in two big ways. There are no electronic voting machines. All ballots are paper ballots which must be marked with a pencil. There are separate ballots for each contested election, i.e. a Presidential ballot, another for the Senate etc.
Every voter must have his/her voter ID card issued by the federal government. This voter ID card is the single most important piece of ID carried by a Mexican. It is used to open a bank account, get a credit card, buy a car etc. Each voter is assigned a poll at which he must vote. Specific polls in each district are assigned "special poll" status. They will have special ballots for out-of-town voters, but a limited number. If a special poll runs out of absentee ballots, the visiting voter is out of luck. The highest number of special ballots assigned to any individual poll on July 2 was 750. Here in Oaxaca, because there were so many out-of-town striking teachers camped out downtown, the special poll ran out of special ballots. Cue the riot.
After the polls close, the counting begins. Just as in the U.S., all the parties are represented and must agree on the vote counting, vote by vote. When finished, a tally sheet, called an Acta, is filled out and everybody signs it. The original tally sheet, along with some other documents, like the voter rolls and all of the ballots, are sealed in a "paquete". A copy of the tally sheet is attached to the outside of the paquete and the paquete is hand carried to the district headquarters for that poll.
It was at this point on election night that confusion began to set in, at least among the many millions watching the results. A separate group, called the PREP, exists to take the results from specified polls and publish them as those counts are concluded. This preliminary result is for informational purposes only. At the conclusion of the release of all the preliminary results, the PREP goes dormant until the next election. At this point, when AMLO's supporters saw that they were not going to win, the accusations of fraud began.
When the preliminary results first began to roll in, AMLO held a substantial lead. However, it was soon learned that in those many thousands of polling places where AMLO lost the vote, PRD poll workers were delaying the counts. They were arguing over every ballot and every tally sheet, trying to slow down the process. Why this was done, I do not know. I can only surmise that AMLO's handlers realized in the hours leading up to the vote that their seemingly insurmountable lead of some weeks before had shrunk to zero. They may have been laying the grounds for their subsequent fraud accusations.
The polling places where AMLO carried the vote were reporting early, thus his lead in the vote. When Felipe Calderon's strongholds finally began to send in their long delayed results, AMLO's lead evaporated and Calderon overtook him at about 2:00 in the morning of July 3. Again, these were preliminary results which would have no bearing whatsoever on the final results. But many people, from pundits and AMLO supporters up to the Los Angeles Times, all ignorant of Mexican election law and process, claimed that the preliminary results as announced constituted fraud. Ridiculous.
AMLO and his supporters claimed electronic fraud, basing their charges on court testimony from a U.S. trial in Ohio back in 2002 that Diebold voting machines could be hacked. When it was pointed out to them that; 1) voting machines aren't used in Mexico and 2) that a scanned tally sheet could not be hijacked on its way from a poll to Mexico City via the internet tubes, they backed off on their charges. AMLO personally admitted that no electronic vote fraud had occurred, calling it "old fashioned vote fraud".
Let me reiterate that even if the PREP had announced fraudulently that Calderon had won by 20 points, that result would have had no bearing whatsoever on the outcome of the election. I tried to point this out in my blog on election night and in the hectic days proceeding the vote, but to little avail. The losers weren't listening.
After the ballots arrive at the 300 district headquarters, the district committees get to work. These committees, like the individual polls, are comprised of IFE professionals as well as representatives assigned by all the political parties involved in the election. The district committees had the authority to open the sealed paquetes, but only by unanimous vote and only under very strict legal guidelines. In approximately 3000 cases, the sealed paquetes were opened but not in all those cases were the votes recounted. Many were opened due to anomalies in the Actas and when those anomalies were corrected, the paquetes were re-sealed.
Once the district committees had blessed all of their paquetes, the only authority to open them would have to come from the TEPJF magistrates. The paquetes were then removed to special storage areas, sealed under lock and key and guarded by the military.
At this point, the political parties began scrambling to mount their legal challenges to the vote process. These legal challenges are decided by the TEPJF and only by the TEPJF. The Mexican federal courts may play no part in this. The entire body of Mexican election law is designed to keep the physical votes and the counting and tallying of those votes out of the hands of the powers in Mexico City.
The TEPJF will hear all of the complaints and assign one magistrate to each complaint. That magistrate will hear the complaint, review the evidence, and make a decision. He will then present that decision to the full board of 7 magistrates who vote on his recommendation. In at least two cases in the past 4 years, the magistrates have voted to overturn an entire state's election. These decisions were based upon overwhelming evidence that massive violations of Mexican election law had occurred, from the beginning of the election campaigns through to the actual voting process.
In the case of the AMLO complaints, some 25 of them charged massive election law violations serious enough to warrant the annulling of the election. These charges included allegations that a potato chip manufacturer's in-house campaign cautioning its employees to wash their hands before handling potato chips was a veiled attack on AMLO and that a fruit juice manufacturer's corporate color scheme - blue like that of the PAN, and adopted by the company in 1968 - was a veiled hint to support Calderon.
Under Mexican election law, if an election cannot be annulled by evidence of overwhelming fraud, we are then left with the issue of recounts. Under those laws, any individual paquete, its contents and its Acta can be challenged. If the TEPJF magistrates can be shown clear and convincing evidence that a given paquete exhibits anomalies or errors, then that paquete can be ordered opened for inspection and/or recount of the ballots contained therein.
The TEPJF has thrown out 25 of AMLO's "massive fraud" complaints as being "baseless". The TEPJF agreed in part with about 125 of AMLO's complaints and agreed with the whole of about another 125 complaints. AMLO lost some ground when his lawyers filed some complaints that, if proved, would have merited an annulment of the election but not a recount. AMLO demanded a recount. He lost more ground when some complaints that he presented might, if proved, have caused a recount. AMLO asked for an annulment.
In other cases, the judges gave complaints back to him and gave him a week to correct them and refile them. That move by the TEPJF took everyone by surprise. It apparently was legal or had some basis in law, but was not required. The magistrates seemed to be using all of the legal discretion and leeway allowed by the law to try to diffuse this growing storm.
Another misconception on the part of pundits, media and AMLO's many supporters is that he could have presented evidence, and, indeed, did present evidence of some massive fraud that should merit a 100% recount. Under Mexican law, such a thing is almost impossible. AMLO would have to have shown that, in more than 131,000 paquetes containing more than 41,000,000 ballots, more than 1,000,000 IFE officials and poll watchers and poll workers from all the political parties, under the watchful gazes of observers from the European Union, the United Nations, the USA, Cuba and Venezuela, including AMLO's own PRD representatives, conspired together as a group to falsify the counts or the tally sheets. These 1,000,000 conspirators, spread out from the Baja beaches all the way down to the Quintana Roo's Blackford Cay Island, would have to have been shown to have devised and carried out a nefarious plan to rob him of that which, as late as last March, he was convinced would be his. Ridiculous, but I repeat myself.
He had one last target of opportunity. If he could show that the 300 district committees changed the ballots or the tally sheets of each and every one of the more than 131,000 paquetes, he might convince the magistrates to order a 100% recount. Using this tactic, he had narrowed down the list of conspirators to about 5000. Again, 5000 conspirators under the watchful gazes of observers form the EU, UN and USA (Fidel's and Chavez's observers had left under cover of darkness) spread out from the Boca Chica at Matamoros to Miguel Aleman in Chiapas, would have to be shown to have devised and carried out a an organized plan to defraud him of the presidency that surely was his by right. Ridiculous, at the risk of redundancy.
All of this is an effort to point out that, under Mexican election law, no individual paquete containing ballots MAY BE OPENED UNLESS EVIDENCE IS PRESENTED AGAINST THAT INDIVIDUAL PARTICULAR PAQUETE.
AMLO failed to even challenge some 25,000 paquetes.
These Mexican laws are designed to protect the ballots from nefarious hands that all too often in the past have derailed the will of the Mexican people. Now AMLO and his supporters are crying for an open air, above the table derailment of the will of the people. When AMLO stated that, if the recount failed to declare him the winner, he would not accept the recount, the game was pretty much up IMHO.
AMLO does not want the election annulled. If that were to happen, the PRI, which had ruled Mexico with an iron hand for more than 70 years, would turn its voters loose to vote for Calderon and AMLO would lose a new election and lose it badly. He wants a recount but only if that recount declares him the winner. He will accept nothing else.Please visit the Pale Horse Galleries online store
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Thanks! TAGS: Mexico election, AMLO, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, PRD, Felipe Calderon
