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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
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
for art, gifts and collectibles -- all hand made
by Mexican indigenous artists.
Thanks! TAGS: Oaxaca teachers strike, APPO, SNTE, EPR
