The first Monday in December Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Crossposted

Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts included in the next Carnival, please email me, faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com.

This week's focus: China's growing influence in our Hemisphere. I'll be podcasting on China's Latin American influence today at 10AM Eastern. Chat's open by 9:45AM and the call-in number is 646 652-2639.



LATIN AMERICA
China's Latin American Tango
A partnership with benefits for both sides.

Latin American diplomacy: Friends of opportunity
China, rather than Russia, is the new partner that matters

Pay attention to next-door neighbors

Latin America tops murder tables

Challenges in Latin America: Russians in Caracas, Misrule in Managua

Chávez, Correa propose new currency area

ARGENTINA
Harvesting pensions
A pre-election boost for Cristina

Kafka era argentino

Radiografía del kirchnerismo

In today's WSJ, Are Argentina's Cows Happy Eating Grain? This matters because grass-fed beef is Argentina's most famous export.

BOLIVIA
Bush Suspends Trade Accord With Bolivia in Anti-Drug Dispute

President George W. Bush suspended a trade agreement with Bolivia, saying the country provided insufficient cooperation in U.S. efforts against drug trafficking.

The president signed a declaration ending trade benefits under the Andean Trade Preference Act and the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement yesterday.

Cutting of trade benefits is the result of Bolivia’s “failure to cooperate with the U.S. counternarcotics efforts,” a condition of maintaining trade preferences, such as reduced tariffs, Perino said.

BRAZIL
Brazil floods are early sign of global warming, expert warns; meanwhile, Brazil mob attacks environmental police in Amazon

La crisis mundial del crédito frena el auge agrícola brasileño

COLOMBIA
DMG, which went under, has its own YouTube channel. The founder of DMG was arrested in Panama two weeks ago. This article (in Spanish) refers to DMG as a Ponzi scheme.

Colombia: Belle Of APEC's Ball

Betancourt makes Colombia return

CUBA
Faltan las marchas

Cuban landmark for Catholic friar

Via IBD blog, "Happy Thanksgiving!" from Fidel

ECUADOR
Ecuador: hopeless

Can pay, might not. Another debt default?

Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa is heading to Iran this week

Hopeless, Clueless and Hapless Correa & ALBA Come to Bury Capitalism: Not to Praise It

MEXICO
Mexico Has Made Big Strides on Economic Policy Calderón was smart enough to hedge against falling oil prices

Houston a weapons depot for Mexico criminal insurgency

WAR ON THE BORDER

Success in Mexico

Via Lucianne, House of shattered dreams: US deports more and more Mexicans

PERU
Garcia blames Mexican drug cartels for Peru violence

APEC summit divides bloggers, according to France24 news:


PUERTO RICO
Puerto Rico Governor Promises Changes

The recession now emerging in places like Florida and Ohio has been a fact of life in Puerto Rico for three years. Unemployment has climbed to nearly 12 percent. Taxes have gone up, purchasing power has declined, and the island’s roughly four million residents are unlikely to be patient with their new leader.
…
The structural challenges are immense. Government here plays an outsize role, employing 20 percent to 30 percent of workers on the island, and it is on the verge of bankruptcy. The current administration said this week that it would end the year with a $2 billion budget deficit. One official suggested it was struggling to make payroll, and some institutions — like the Center for Puerto Rican Studies — already report that they have not received government money they are owed.

VENEZUELA
Chávez Again Seeks to End Term Limits; Chavez renews reelection ambition
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced a plan to seek a constitutional amendment to allow him to stand for reelection

Brief thoughts on Venezuela

The 2008 Venezuelan results: 3 - Yaracuy as the epitome of all that is wrong with the Venezuelan Political System

Hugo Chavez reverts to his usual self a day after the election, blaming everyone but his perfect self

Russia's Challenge On The High Seas

Russia Proposes Nuclear Reactor Plan to Chavez

The Real Hugo Chavez

Alvaro Vargas Llosa writes about Chavez’s Stumble

Venezuela’s regional elections: Checked, but not halted
Some satisfaction for Hugo Chávez but more for his opponents

ENTERTAINMENT
Che Movie Debuts Miami this Week (Dec. 4)

OTHER ROUNDUPS and news in Spanish
WSJ Americas
HACER
Noticias24

The week’s posts and podcasts
The Russia-Venezuela maneuvers in the Caribbean: 15 Minutes on Latin America
Chávez Lets Colombia Rebels Wield Power Inside Venezuela
Nuclear Latin America: Today’s 15 Minutes on Latin America



Special thanks to Ada, Maggie, Eneas, GoV, and Sam.


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The plundered pensions Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean

Crossposted
Welcome to the Carnival of Latin America and the Caribbean. If you would like your posts included in the next Carnival please email me: faustaw2 "at" gmail "dot" com.

The week's big story: As the country is about to default again on its debt, Argentina’s leftist President Cristina Kirchner signed a proposal nationalizing the country’s private pension funds in what could be seen as a grab for cash and power amid the global economic crisis. Read more about it in the section for Argentina below.

LATIN AMERICA
The Hezbollah-Latin American Ties Become More Evident, also at Counterterrorism blog

ARGENTINA
Argentina Allows Pension Funds to Resume Trading

Juan Forero summarizes the suitcase trial in Miami, which is now gone to the jury: Court Case in Miami Casts Light on Corruption in Venezuela

If it feels good, do it!

Cristina's looking-glass world: A plan to nationalise private-pension funds looks like a cunning but short-sighted government effort to stave off another debt default

Asco de gente

BOLIVIA
While the US cuts off trade benefits with Bolivia because of cocaine, Evo Morales goes for nose surgery:
U.S. Cuts Off Trade Benefits to Bolivia Over Drugs

Via Lucianne, Bolivia's president to undergo nasal surgery

BRAZIL
Licensed to scribble: An end to journalism’s closed shop?

Brazilians vote in key city polls

CHILE
Consumer groups call on FDA to test Chilean salmon

COLOMBIA
Suspected Hezbollah Operatives Nabbed in South America, Congress Should Approve FTA

Huge cocaine bust in Colombia

Colombian army frees Farc hostage but he says he escaped with his guard: Farc hostage escapes with guard

Via IBD Blog, For every hectare of coca planted, 3 to 4 hectares of forest are actually cut down: POINT OF VIEW/ Francisco Santos Calderon: Colombia battling cocaine, preserving nature

Colombia's indigenous protest against Uribe

Small explosions wound 18 in Colombian capital

CUBA
Surprise! Cuban DGI helped Ayers and the Weather Underground

Hirám González Torna, Cuban Political Prisoner of the Week, 10/26/08

ECUADOR
Vicious attack turns couple’s dream trip to nightmare: Oregon man critical but stable after being stabbed on Ecuadorian beach

Iran's Financial Scams: Ecuadorean Fiscal Astroturffing for Criminals

HAITI
Read about Fusion Technology's dealings in Haiti: Democrats for Despotism Party figures had a profitable relationship with Haiti's dictator. Video at the article.

JAMAICA
Illegal immigration, and Jamaican ganja for Haitian guns: Haiti and Jamaica's deadly trade

MEXICO
Declining conspicuous consumption for drug thugs

Mexican Senate Passes Energy Reform

PERU
Return of Peru's Shining Path as terror movement kills 19 soldiers

Jaime Bayly, in Spanish, talking about South Park’s Andean bands


PUERTO RICO
Via Jeremayakovka, The Republican Party of Pennsylvania and PA's Secretary of State are trading barbs over voter registration.

Nearly 1,000 pounds of coke seized in Puerto Rico

After the San Juan Star's closing, the government will be subsidizing a new English-language daily: English-language daily to debut in Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO - A group of journalists in Puerto Rico said Tuesday they are ready to launch the island's first cooperative-style newspaper this week with a $1 million boost from the government.

The new English-language tabloid would replace the Pulitzer Prize-winning San Juan Star, a nearly 50-year-old daily that closed two months ago amid declining revenues and disputes between the publisher and union over layoffs and benefit cuts.

Roughly 15,000 copies of the Puerto Rico Daily Sun will be printed on Wednesday and about 2,000 subscribers have already signed up, editor Rafael Matos told a news conference in the U.S. island's capital, San Juan.

The Puerto Rican Department of Labor and Human Resources will contribute $1 million to help cover salaries and benefits. Half that amount will be available under a local law that provides incentives to companies that create new jobs, Secretary Roman Velasco said.

Matos said the paper's objectivity would not be compromised by the government help.
"We are subject to the strictest of journalistic canons," Matos said. "This is not an investment from the government - it is a contribution."

Matos said 90 former Star employees agreed to buy a minimum of $200 in shares of the United Press Cooperative to help start the paper/

VENEZUELA
Via Grouchy Old Cripple, Chavez raises whisky prices


Via Venezuela News and Views, Sacrificios bolivarianos

U.S. Treasury Designation Targets Iran's WMD Financing, Alliance With Venezuela

News from Europe: thumbs down on Chavez

Chavez' folly: He owns and controls everything, but they don't work. It can only get worse

A letter to Sean Penn

AMERICAN POLITICS
"I was born in Colombia, but I was made in the USA"

The more things change: The neighbours’ tepid enthusiasm for Barack Obama

The Conservative Rebellion

Would There Be Change in Obama's Americas Policy?

More news on Latin America at Wall Street Journal en español and HACER

THIS WEEK’S POSTS AND PODCASTS
Chavez wants to jail rival Rosales
A suitcase full of money from Hugo to Cristina
OPEC cuts production, prices fall, Hugo sweats some more
Colombia smashes drug ring with Hezbollah ties
Argentina: Let’s plunder the pensions!
Sean Penn goes to Caracas



Special thanks to Eneas, Larwyn, Maggie and Maria.


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Crime pays: Getting away with terror at British taxpayers' expense

Pictured: Smiling preacher of hate Abu Qatada enjoying an £800,000 home and a life of benefits


The Daily Mail refers to Abu Qatada, the "preacher", as Al-Qaeda's "ambassador to Europe." As if al-Qaeda was a diplomatic service. You're looking at Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe.

Of course he's smiling. Look at what he's getting:
1. He can't be extradited to Jordan "because his human rights would have been breached."
2. He lives in a $1.6 million house.
3. He receives $100,000 in (British) government benefits.
4. He's under house arrest but meanders freely.
5. Supposedly he's on disability receiving $300/week for a back injury but can carry a knapsack in public. He's not worried that anyone would jail him for fraud.
6. His "45-year-old wife is said to be entitled to child benefits, income support, housing and council tax credits which exceed £800 each week." (that would be approx. $1600.) Plus, "The family is also said to pick up around £210 in income support."
7. AND he gets a tax break: "the couple is exempt from paying the £2,283 yearly council tax bill on their home."

This photograph of the smiling al-Qaeda operative telescopes to the rest of the world the message that the UK officially has signed a suicide pact.

Via Memeorandum: Terrorist Dream Job: Al Qaeda Ambassador to Europe

Not a single international terrorist has been forcibly removed from Britain since the 7/7 terror attacks, for the simple reason that their quisling allies run the country.

This really is the end of Britain.

Crossposted



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"Isn't Brutally Raping an Eight-year-old More Cruel Than Lethal Injection?"

Eighth Amendment Question: Isn't Brutally Raping an Eight-year-old More Cruel Than Lethal Injection?, asks Andy McCarthy.

The answer, of course, is yes.

But the dishonesty of the judges is what shines through in this decision. As McCarthy points out,

Wouldn't it be refreshingly honest if activist justices just bluntly us: "We don't like the death penalty and we can stop it because there are five of us." Sure, it would be tyrannical, but at least it would be accurate, and not nearly as nauseating as what passes for reasoning in these cases.

I wonder if the same kind of perverse reasoning will apply one day and would not give the death penalty to someone who takes justice into their own hands and kills a child rapist rather than have the rapist go through the system and benefit from the Justices' "reasoning".



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Venezuela: RCTV's anchorman stabbed to death in his Caracas apartment

UPDATE
This is the second Venezuelan journalist killed in a week. Scroll down
Asesinado Javier García, ancla de El Observador de RCTV

Javier García, periodista y ancla de El Observador de RCTV, ha sido asesinado, este fin de semana, de varias puñaladas, en el interior de su apartamento de Caracas.

El hallazgo ocurrió en el departamento del comunicador, ubicado en Colinas de Bello Monte, en Caracas. Se desconoce el móvil del crimen.
(my translation:)
Javier Garcia, journalist and anchorman of RCTV's Observer newscast, was stabbed to death this weekend in his Caracas apartment.

He was found in his residence at Colinas de Bello Monte, Caracas. The motive for the crime is unknown.

Noticias 24 says that the building's doorman stopped a man who tried to leave the building with a suitcase. When the doorman asked where was he coming from, the man said the suitcase belonged to Garcia. The doorman didn't allow the man to leave with the suitcase.

Here is a video report in Spanish:

Asesinado Javier Garcia de RCTV
by noticias24

Readers of this blog will remember that Chavez closed RCTV last year, amidst a great deal of outrage. For more information on the RCTV closing please listen to my May 26, 2007 podcast.

UPDATE
Pierre Gerges, vice president of Reporte Diario de la Economia, was driving his brother's car Monday evening a week ago when two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle shot him at least 12 times: The IHT has the article, Venezuelan newspaper says executive's killing due to reporting



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Illegal immigration and identity theft

A couple of years ago I watched a report on Univision or Telemundo (I forget which at this point) where the reporter interviewed a woman, an illegal alien from a Central American country.

The woman, who apparently was not employed, lived in a grand style. She was youngish (late twenties - early thirties?) and good looking, nicely dressed.

Her apartment looked like something out of the Pottery Barn catalogue. When asked about how did she earn the money for living in such style, she actually stated that she had done it by charging it to stolen credit cards. She felt that she was owned that lifestyle and had every right to take was she felt was her due.

By the time the report was over I was furious. There had to be hundreds like her. Unfortunately I didn't have the time or resources to investigate.

Steven Malanga, however, has been looking into the issue and has an excellent article at City Journal, Illegal in More Ways than One
Identity theft in America goes hand and hand with illegal immigration (emphasis added):

As everyone knows, America is experiencing an epidemic of identity theft. In the last five years alone, complaints to the Federal Trade Commission from U.S. residents who have had their identity stolen have skyrocketed 60 percent, to 258,427 in 2007- one-third of all consumer fraud complaints that the commission receives. What's less well understood, however, is how illegal immigration is helping to fuel this rash of crime. Seeking access to jobs, credit, and driver's licenses, many undocumented aliens are using the personal data of real Americans on forged documents. The immigrants' identity theft has become so pervasive that the need to combat it is "a disturbing front in the war against illegal immigration," according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The FTC's latest statistics help show why. The top five states in terms of reported identity theft in 2007 all have large immigrant populations - the border states of Arizona, California, and Texas, as well as Florida and Nevada. People who pilfer legitimate identities in these states are much more likely than in other parts of the country to use them to gain employment unlawfully - the most common reason that illegal aliens steal personal information. In Arizona, for instance, 36 percent of all identity theft is for employment purposes, compared with only 5 percent in Maine, a state with far fewer illegal aliens. "To many law enforcement leaders in Arizona, this suggests that Arizona's identity-theft epidemic is directly linked to the problem of illegal immigration," says a recent report by Identity Theft 911, an Arizona company that helps businesses and individuals protect themselves.

Government investigations have only begun to uncover the extent of the crime wave. When ICE agents raided six Swift meat-processing plants in December 2006, they found widespread evidence of fraud involving the use of real people's identities; the feds eventually charged 148 illegal aliens in the case with crimes related to identity theft. In the first year and a half after Arizona created a special unit to deal with identity theft, investigators said that they were able to purchase more than 1,000 phony documents that made use of real people's identities. A so-called three-pack - a Social Security card, a driver's license, and a permanent-resident card - costs on average just $160 in the state.

How is it done?

One disturbing theory: health-care employees with access to children's files are working for organized gangs that trade in illegal documents and are willing to pay richly for the data. "We have a major problem with workers in medical offices stealing patients' identities, selling them and making a direct profit," Sergeant James Bracke of the Phoenix Police Department told authors of the Arizona report. The gangs can afford these bribes because identity theft has become such a big business. In Phoenix, "coyotes," the smugglers who lead illegal immigrants over our borders, have created a network of phony-document producers and safe houses where undocumented workers can wait until they get their fraudulent papers.

Where to start? Through local law enforcement.

Until local police departments are trained and willing to fight this crime, it will continue to expand. And illegal aliens involved should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.



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Murder mystery in Texas?

My friend Mary Madigan has a most interesting article at Pajamas Media today, A 'Non-Violent' Palestinian Activist Dies in Texas

On April 16, the body of teacher and activist Riad Hamad was spotted floating in Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. Witnesses said the man's body had been "wrapped with duct tape." According to News Radio 590, the police were not sure if foul play was involved. When Hamad was reported missing, the family mentioned that he was experiencing suicidal thoughts.

And then there's the matter of $500,000...



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The curious case of Societe Generale's Jerome Kerviel

I've been reading about Jerome Kerviel since the story of his $7,000,000,000 loss first hit the news.

All along I keep asking myself, is he the fall guy?

How can a trader (not a manager, partner or senior partner) who was in profit by nearly $2 billion at the start of 2008 lose that kind of money that fast without anyone noticing, especially when SG was looking into his transactions since last April?

This morning's WSJ's front page story:
In a French Twist, Infamous Trader Gets Hero Treatment
Bank Finds It Hard to Say Au Revoir to Mr. Kerviel; 'Che Guevara of Finance'

Considering how Che Guevara bankrupt the Cuban bankins system, at least the analogy holds.

Because of the ridiculousness of French employment laws, SG can't fire him right now

Société Générale has stopped paying Mr. Kerviel and told him not to come to the office, but it hasn't managed to formally fire him. French law stipulates that to do that, the bank must first call him in for a sit-down meeting and explain its dissatisfaction. He has the right to bring along a trade-union official, a lawyer or anyone else he'd like.

That will be complicated: A pair of Paris judges this week released Mr. Kerviel from custody but forbade him to have contact with the bank. "This is a very peculiar case," says Emmanuel Dockès, a law professor at l'Université Lyon 2, Mr. Kerviel's alma mater in central France.

The article points out that apparently Kerviel didn't profit personally from all those high-risk transactions over the past two years.

My guts tell me that even if Kerviel didn't profit, somebody at SG did.

Indeed, a curious case.

UPDATE
Via Tristan, France in Need of an SEC?



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The judge is a Marine, too

Remember that lawyer that keyed the Marine's car?

Well, the case got to court, and the presiding judge is a Marine, too.

As any Marine will tell you, you are forever a Marine.

The defendant was late, and the judge let him have it:

The Judge asked him if he had committed the specific acts he was accused of. The defendant hemmed and hawed, and the Judge raised his voice to make him say yes or no. The defendant agreed, and the Judge read the facts into the record. Several times, the Judge said if there were no deal, he would be given a court date just like any other defendant, and he could try and make bail soon.

The deal: 1 year Social Service Supervision, restitution of 600 dollars to be paid to Social Services and which would go to the Injured Marine Semper Fi fund, to be paid by February 25th, 2008, and $50/month in supervision fees.

The Judge then, in as angry a voice as I have ever heard him use, scolded the defendant, saying that the Marine license plates the complaining witness had were not vanity plates or about ego, but the proceeds go toward the Marine and Navy scholarship fund for the children of fallen soldiers, sailors and marines. These Marines protect his very existence "so people like you can enjoy their freedom." He further said that the reason there were so many in the courtroom and so much public interest is that the Marines have a tradition since 1775 that "No Marine gets left behind." Several Hoorahs in the courtroom.

And then the deal was done, and he was taken away by the sheriffs to be released later.

Sweet.

Special thanks to Judith for the update.



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"Honor" killing in Dallas, killer now a fugitive

Manhunt for Father Suspected of Killing Teen Girls

Police continued searching for a man suspected of shooting his two teenage daughters, including one who called 911 about an hour before officers found them dead in his taxi, police said.

Yaser Abdel Said, 50, of the Dallas suburb of Lewisville, is accused of shooting Sarah Yaser Said, 17, and Amina Yaser Said, 18, in his taxi Tuesday night and abandoning it in a parking lot, leaving them to die.

Take a look at the photo above. That's what the son of a bitch looks like:

Police described Yaser Abdel Said as about 6-foot-2, weighing about 180 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a black turtleneck shirt or sweater, a brown coat and tan pants. He is believed to be armed with a handgun, police said.

Friends: Murdered Teens Were Afraid Of Their Dad

Friends of the girls say their father was Egyptian and critical of popular American lifestyles. ""He was really strict about guy relationships and talking to guys, as well as the things she wears," Kathleen Wong, a friend of the dead teenagers. "I'm definitely 100% sure that it was her dad that killed her."

The Washington Times was posting about it and linked that Police did say they are looking into the possibility that the father was upset with his daughters' dating activities.

Jeremayakovka sent me a photo of the two beautiful girls:

Phyllis Chesler:

Perhaps how Amina and Sarah dressed, and how they thought, shamed their father Abdul. He was no longer in control of his women—a mark of shame which provoked his need to kill them. Perhaps their flowering sexuality enraged him because it made him desire them—and from this he concluded that other men might desire them too and if he could not have them, no man could.

How many more have been murdered under similar circumstances and the real reason has never been identified?

UPDATE
It can't happen here, right?

Update 2: Texas honor-killing: the manhunt continues.

The Washington Times is carrying the story. AP and Reuters aren't showing it on their international feeds, but it's the top story in the America's Most Wanted website.



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Lawyer keys Marine's car, tries to get away with it

Via Kat, Anti-Military Lawyer Damages Marine's Car on Eve of Deployment

While saying goodbye, at about 11am, he noticed a man leaning up against his car. Mike left his friend's apartment and caught the man keying his car on multiple sides.

After caught in the process, the man told Mike, "you think you can do whatever you want with Department of Defense license plates and tags". (In Illinois you can purchase veteran, Marine, or medal plates. Mike has Illinois Marine Corps license plates.) During the exchange, he made additional anti-military comments.

Mike called the Chicago police and had the man arrested. A citation against the man was issued for misdemeanor criminal damage to private property.
...
As it turns out, the man is Chicago lawyer Jay R. Grodner, who owns a law firm in the city and has offices in the suburbs.

A vandal in the legal profession, no less.

Volokh asks:

BlackFive carries a report of an alleged anti-military hate crime (vandalism). I can't speak to the facts, having seen just this one account; but I am curious about one legal question: When a complainant in a criminal case — or some other kind of witness, in a criminal or civil case — is about to become unavailable because he is being recalled to active duty, how does the legal system treat the matter?
...
Note, incidentally, that I label this incident an alleged hate crime because, if the facts are as alleged, it is a hate crime, and because that's a clear quick way of describing the matter. I am not urging any specially heightened penalties for such crimes, nor to my knowledge is the complainant.

It is a hate crime.

The question remains, what can the Marine legally do?



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Thank you, Hassan Askari

Gateway Pundit has the story: Jew's subway hero a Muslim
Read the rest.

Jeanne Assam and the case for CCL

One of the saddest events of my life took place right after I had earned my driver's license: I had to drive my mother (who can't drive) to the funeral of a four-year-old who was shot by accident by his five-year-old brother.

The children were visiting at a house in the countryside for the weekend, where one of the guests arrived and left his suitcase open with a loaded gun in full view in a room with an open door. The boys thought it was a toy.

For many years after, I actively campaigned against guns, until I moved to Princeton. By sheer coincidence, I came across information on the part the NRA played in helping blacks avoid lynching during the Jim Crow South era.

A few years later I was at my home when a friend of my neighbor exposed himself to me in my own home. I was fortunate enough that he left the house immediately when I demanded he do so. I have no doubt about his intentions.

Afterwards, I told two women friends (who live alone) of my experience and they revealed to me that they have gun permits. Neither woman will be victimized, and both women recognize that by the time the police get to a crime scene, it's too late for the victim. As one of them said, "I am a strong woman, but I'm not as strong as a man my size."

The BBC has a video of Jeanne Assam. Assam single-handedly stopped an assault on a church congregation by a murderer who had killed four people.

The BBC article and report do not mention the following:

[The gunman, Matthew] Murray was carrying two handguns, an assault rifle and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition, said Sgt. Jeff Johnson of the Colorado Springs Police Department

Via Gina Cobb, Jeanne Assam faced the crisis with courage and decisiveness:

Bourbonnais, who was among those shot by a gunman Sunday at New Life Church, watched as a security guard, a woman later identified as Jeanne Assam, calmly returned fire and killed the shooter.

"She just started walking toward the gunman firing the whole way," said Bourbonnais, who was shot in the arm. "She was just yelling 'Surrender,' walking and shooting the whole time."

Bourbonnais, 59, had just finished up a hamburger in the cafeteria on the sprawling church campus when he heard gunfire, he recalled.

He headed in the direction of the shots as frightened people ran past him looking to escape to safety.

"Where's the shooter? Where's the shooter?" Bourbonnais kept yelling, he recalled.
Near an entryway in the church, Bourbonnais came upon the gunman and an armed male church security guard who was there with his gun drawn but not firing, he said.

Bourbonnais said he pleaded with the armed guard to give him his weapon.

"Give me your handgun. I've been in combat, and I'm going to take this guy out," Bourbonnais recalled telling the guard. "He kept yelling, 'Get behind me! Get behind me!' He wouldn't hand me his weapon, but he wouldn't do anything."

There was an additional armed security guard there, another man, who also didn't fire, Bourbonnais said.

Bourbonnais yelled at the gunman to draw his attention, he said.

"First, I called him 'Coward' then I called him 'S---head' " Bourbonnais said. "I probably shouldn't have been saying that in church."

That's when the shooter pointed one of his guns at Bourbonnais and fired, he said.

Bourbonnais ducked behind a hollow, decorative pillar and was hit in the arm by a bullet and fragments of the pillar.

At about that moment, Assam turned a corner with a drawn handgun, walked toward the gunman and yelled "Surrender!" Bourbonnais said.

The gunman pointed a handgun at Assam and fired three shots, Bourbonnais said. She returned fire and just kept walking toward the gunman pressing off round after round.

After the gunman went down, Bourbonnais asked Assam, a volunteer security guard with the church, how she remained so calm and focused.

Bourbonnais said she replied:

"I was asking the Holy Spirit to guide me the entire time."

Ed Morrissey lays a very convincing case for Carry Concealed Licenses:

Murray didn't show up to shoot a couple of people and call it a day. Two handguns, an assault rifle, and over a thousand rounds of ammunition would have equaled a church full of corpses had Assam and others not been able to defend themselves and their fellow parishioners. Before Murray had a chance to really open up on what he assumed was a defenseless congregation, Assam used her training and preparation to save dozens of lives, at the least.

Over the weekend, Mitch and I discussed the Omaha mall shooting, where eight people died in a "gun-free zone" when a lunatic started sniping shoppers. Some questioned whether a CCL holder with a pistol could outmatch a lunatic with a rifle. This shows exactly what one trained shooter can do to defend against someone who randomly selects unarmed targets for slaughter.

And this is the folly of "gun-free zones". Lunatics looking to kill people either will attack at places for which they have some animus (as in the case of the church) or where they can find a lot of unarmed people (as in Omaha). They don't stop because someone puts up a sign designating a site as gun-free, any more than people stop taking drugs because a city puts up a sign that designates a neighborhood as a "drug-free zone", as in my own neighborhood.

All that sign does is prevent the Jeanne Assams from being able to defend the defenseless. That's all it does. It doesn't make anyone more secure or safe, and it has the potential to make a lot of people into victims.

After the Virginia Tech shooting, people asked whether a CCL holder could have made a difference once the shooting started. Jeanne Assam answered that question on Sunday.

Gateway Pundit and Glenn Reynolds have more.


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Hsu gets sick, gets caught, one of The Busted Clintonistas

Hsu was arrested in Grand Junction, CO, after he fell ill on an Amtrak train.

Allahpundit says that

The feds are going to drop the interstate fugitive charge against him when they turn him over to California? Huh?

The WaPo highlights how the Clintonistas don't google their contributors:

For many people who crossed paths with Hsu in politics, his disappearance left them wondering whether they ever really knew him. "I think a lot of us are scratching our heads," said Hassan Nemazee, a Clinton fundraiser in New York.

But of course, Hsu's not the only Clinton supporter that got busted this week: Clinton Supporter Arrested in N.J. Corruption Sting

Among the 11 public officials arrested in an F.B.I. corruption sting in New Jersey today was a leading Democratic supporter of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign in that state, Mayor Samuel Rivera of Passaic.
...
Mr. Rivera is one of about 100 members of Mrs. Clinton's Mayors Council, which, according to a campaign press release in July, "will advise the campaign on policy and outreach."
...
Blake Zeff, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, just e-mailed to say that Mayor Rivera stepped down from Mrs. Clinton's Mayors Council today.

Will the judges let Hsu out on bail again? The chances are that Rivera will get out on bail, if he isn't already.

We're making progress. As I noted yesterday, the party affiliation is not mentioned when there's a Democrat busted, because that's "The Rule"

If the party is reported, the perpetrator is REPUBLICAN. If there is NO party identification of a bad person, the perpetrator is AUTOMATICALLY A DEMOCRAT.

The Busted Clintonistas - a good name for a rock band. Heck, make that a symphonic orchestra: there are 47 individuals and businesses associated with the Clinton machine who have been convicted of or pleaded guilty to crimes. And that doesn't include the ones still on the lam.


For additional background info, via WILLisms Belmont Club, here's The Idiot's Guide to Chinagate.

Update, Saturday 8 September:
One Hundred And Eight??



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Just another day in New Jersey

FBI Makes 11 Corruption Arrests In N.J

Sources told WNBC.com that several of the officials were allegedly caught in a sting operation accepting payoffs from undercover agents. Officials said the officials took bribes to steer insurance contracts for schools and municipalities. The officials charged serve in at least three counties including Essex, Atlantic and Passaic.

The FBI set up an undercover insurance company and used cooperating witnesses to catch the officials on tape demanding payments ranging from $1,500 to $17,000, investigators said. And the suspects were demanding ongoing payoffs from the undercover insurance brokers, authorities said.

The charges are just the latest in dozens of corruption-related arrests across New Jersey in recent years.

Nowhere in the article do they mention the suspects' party affiliation.

Fellow Jersey blooger Lawhawk noticed, too.

MS-13 and the Newark murders

I have blogged in the past about the MS-13, a.k.a. the Mara Salvatrucha gang. Back in 2005 there was a huge nationwide crackdown leading to arrests of gang members around the country and here in NJ.

On Saturday August 4 four young people, including three students at Delaware State University, were shot in the head at close range in a school parking lot in Newark. Deshon Harvey, 20, Terrance "T.J." Aeriel, 18, and Iofemi Hightower, 20, were killed that night. The surviving victim is helping police with the case.

Newark is a "sanctuary city",

According to 'Lou Dobbs Tonight', "Newark's sanctuary policies protect illegal aliens, even those charged with commission of crimes."

Jose Lachira Carranza, a 28 yr old illegal immigrant from Peru, has been charged with the murders. At the time of the murders Carranza was out on $150,000 bail in a child rape case of a girl who had been in his care since she was four years old.

According to the NY Times

An illegal immigrant from Peru, Jose Lachira Carranza, 28, possessed of a temper and a growing rap sheet, appears to have directed the group of a half-dozen or more — answered to like a boss. The group pulled off petty stickups in the elevators and parking lots of the sprawling Ivy Hill Park Apartments in the West Ward, according to interviews with relatives, friends and victims, who say the crew extorted people for quick cash, sometimes slipped through apartment doors cracked barely open by frightened residents.

Over the years, Mr. Carranza and Rodolfo Godinez, 24, who is Ms. Gomez’s other son, were each arrested at least twice on serious charges. But together they also carried off crimes under the radar, their victims say. On one occasion, they shook down Anglade Montel, a 33-year-old father of two babies, for $30, he said, adding that he was too terrified to ever call the police.

Godinez is an illegal alien from Nicaragua who had been ordered deported on May 5, 1993.

Newark's police director goes through great pains to emphasize that

"At this point there is nothing in this case that indicates that this has to do with a gang angle, gang initiation, or gang violence,"

However, Dan Riehl (via Larwyn) has been looking at one of the suspects' MySpace page, and the connection is clear. The suspect is a 15-yr old living in Morristown. At least one of the victims in the Aug. 4 attack in Newark was sliced with what the lone survivor told police was a machete, a "trademark" of the MS-13.

New Jersey is among the places where local authorities aren't required to check the immigration status of someone arrested. Mike at Flopping Aces points out that Jon Corzine, the governor of NJ, announced a few days after the murders, that "we have a responsibility to look after the human rights and civil rights of each and every immigrant." As Mike points out,

Corzine's emphasis on "civil rights" which apparently shielded child raping mass murderers must have left mourners at the funerals of the victims somewhat hollow when they heard him say "These children deserved better."

Bloomberg, and Hillary

Mitchell Langbert rips into the N Sun's idea that Bloomberg would win if he ran for President: New York's UINO Bloomberg: Is the MSM on Drugs?

Tying all of these developments together, the Sun's first page headline on Friday claimed that Mayor Bloomberg has a chance of winning the presidency, apparently based on the counter-factual claim that Mayor Bloomberg is "competent". Yet, the article fails to mention reports of the Mayor's incompetence in the Sun's own pages. As the Sun's Alicia Colon points out, the Mayor has accomplished little save drive the middle class from New York:

"...many New Yorkers think he's done a great job as mayor. They must all be real estate developers, because one thing I'll give Bloomberg credit for is giving them the heart and soul of New York City while driving real New Yorkers to other states."

Mayor Bloomberg has apparently driven the middle class out of New York competently, because none of the mainstream media reports that story. That story is the story of a real estate bubble. In the 1990s only millionaires could afford a city apartment. Since Mayor Bloomberg's election, only deca-millionaires ($10 million and up net worth) can afford one. Studios go for over a million dollars. Such a modest price is understandable because recent grads just starting out with low incomes need somewhere to live. Rent control, housing regulation, subsidies for super-developments all spell "government-induced shortage". All of this has proceeded on Mayor Bloomberg's watch. Yet, New York's MSM trumpets "competence".

In August 2006 , I suggested that Mayor Bloomberg is an INO, independent in name only. Now, the consensus seems to be that he's a UINO, unaffiliated in name only. In either case, Bloomberg's positions are across the board left/liberal. He has done nothing to shrink government, eliminate waste or lower taxes. He has interfered in areas such as the reconstruction of the Twin Towers where he lacks competence. His urban planning exercises, such as the master plan and the football stadium, have been manifestly incompetent. He has implemented intrusive health regulations. He has harassed small business and provided private-use eminent domain support to billionaire developers.

Read it all - Langbert concludes with,

They all point to the importance of a renewed alliance between economic liberals and the religious right. If a conservative candidate can make a convincing case that satisfies these two groups, he or she will be unbeatable.

I agree - A few weeks ago I said that a Republican candidate can win, but it'd be a matter of running against the insiders. It can be done - Sarkozy just did in France.

James Joyner has more on Gotham's megalomaniacs.

And now, about Hillary,
Investor's Business Daily

Because even as the video spoofing the Sopranos was being flashed around the Internet, serious charges of political corruption were about to be leveled against Hillary Clinton in a California court. As it turns out, the Clintons-as-crime-family trope in Hillary's campaign video might be a little too close for comfort.

The scandal involves allegations by movie producer Peter Paul that a 2000 senatorial fundraiser for Clinton in Hollywood violated campaign laws. Paul claims he spent $2 million to produce the fundraising event — a de facto campaign expenditure. Under campaign law then in effect, campaign gifts were limited to $2,000.

He further claims that Hillary Clinton knew of his behind-the-scenes illegal activity and approved of it.

This Friday, Paul's attorney says he will file an appeals court brief seeking the admission of new evidence in the case: a video in which Hillary Clinton is heard, over a speakerphone, thanking Paul in advance for putting on the fundraiser. "I wanted to call and personally thank all of you," she says on the tape. "It's going to mean a lot to the president, too," she adds.

That last part is crucial, since Paul maintains the only reason he put the fundraiser on was to get Bill Clinton to serve as a "rainmaker" for a now-defunct Internet company that Paul headed.

The Federal Elections Commission already found Clinton's 2000 senatorial campaign failed to report all the money it raised during the event that Paul produced. This takes that a step further.

Doug Ross explains Hillary Clinton and "The Largest Election Law Fraud in History". This is a must-read post. Doug clearly explains the latest Clinton scandal, which is of course bypassed by the MSM (which is too busy talking about Paris Hilton's latest).

The post includes two videos:


and


Go to Doug Ross's post and read it all.

You won't find this at the WaPo, which is busy talking about hillarycare
-----------------------------------------------
In other political news, you know Dick Cheney's the one in the bull's eye when the WaPo starts running a long series of long articles on its front page. Expect the Libs to start crying for blood more loudly than they already are.


Technorati: Hillary Clinton Michael Bloomberg
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This weekend's WSJ picks, on time for Father's Day

On time for Father's Day shopping, the WSJ has a great list of books and gifts this weekend:

Alan Murray wants an outdoor propane grill:



In the book aisle,
Theodore Dalrymple, who wrote

picks his five favorite books on the criminal mind:



The WSJ book section also has reviews on


On the DVD aisle, there's an article by Peggy Noonan on The Sopranos. Here are seasons 1-6


Tom Selleck selects his favorite performances by leading men:



I would add to the shopping list The Illusionist: a romantic movie men will like.


On the CD aisle,


More Father's Day items here:

One party? Not so fast

Venezuela's communists, other leftists, resist president's push for single socialist party. See update below

At the same time, Academic Elephant, blogging at Red State, asks, Is the opposition in Venzuela really dead? Rosales is forming a new opposition party.

Are there signs to a crumbling power equation? Gustavo Coronel explores the subject as Chavez shifts from strategic action to instrumental action.

Academic Elephant had a great post on Chaveonomics 101. Things are so bad in the Venezuelan economy that Hugo's officially announced that he'll massage the inflation numbers so they don't look as bad. Things are getting worse:

In the slums of Caracas, Chavista grocery patrons are now being branded on their bellies (food goes into your belly, right?) with indelible ink by store personnel to ensure that they do not buy more chicken than the government arbitrarily allows.

Still, he continues to nationalize whatever he sees fit. Crime is rising, and tourists are robbed and raped in their hotels

Venezuela was ranked among the four most dangerous countries on the Latin Security Index developed by Holder International for Latin Business Chronicle.

According to the US State Department, Venezuela's one of the principal drug-transit countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Venezuela News and Views has a round-up on How to deal with Chavismo - and Hillary wants us to turn off the lights 'because we don't want to send any more money to Chavez in Venezuela'. Good idea Hillary, now please go tell Joe to go fall in line because 'I Do Feel Noways Tired of his affiliation with the newly-minted dictator.

While continuing to enhance ties with Iran, Hugo's not friendly towards its neighbor Guyana. Now imagine a small defenseless country bordering with a large country that has embarked in an arms race that appears to have no limit.

Last evening I was working on this post when my friend Sigmund Carl and Alfred emailed me this article, Syria ready with bio-terror if U.S. hits Iran
Damascus reportedly hiding WMD among commercial pharmaceuticals. As it turned out, he sent the email just as I was reading that the Venezuelan Foreign Minister was visiting Syria's Bashar Assad in preparation for Assad's visit to Venezuela.

Update V Crisis posts on the single party story: Venezuela's communists weary of Chavez's hegemonic construct?

The business of determining what Venezuelan political event will be picked up by major international news outlets is tricky. The communist State of Venezuela has become a place where not two weeks go by without a major scandal hitting the news. And when I say major scandal I'm not exaggerating. Check out these examples since the beginning of this year:

-- Hugo Chavez declares himself a dictator and promises to send Church hierarchs literature on Marx and Lenin so that they'll understand what his 'socialism of the 21st century' is all about.
-- Officials from Venezuela, by any measure an underdeveloped country, sign in London, by any measure and in itself one of the world's leading economies, an agreement to subsidise fuel of its public bus fleet.
-- Hugo Chavez sort of makes official his break up with Israel.
-- Hugo Chavez nationalizes local and foreign owned power and telecom companies.

You must read the rest.