Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, has seen snow for the first time in 89 years, as a cold snap continues to grip several South American nations. Temperatures plunged to -22C (-8F) in parts of Argentina's province of Rio Negro, while snow fell on Buenos Aires for several hours on Monday. ... In Bolivia, heavy snowfall blocked the nation's main motorway and forced the closure of several airports. ... In Chile, temperatures dropped to -18C (0F) in parts of Araucania region in the south.
Last month The Economist was reporting about Peru's poor infrastructure. Infrastructure problems are more evident now that the Peruvians are chilly, too,
Cold snap prompts Peru emergencyThe Peruvian government has declared a state of emergency in several Andean regions hit by unusually cold weather.
Of course, it's all due to climate change
Scientists say the unseasonable droughts, heavy rains and frosts are due to climate change.
I've known all along that the weather is constantly changing, and I'm not a even a scientist (but I'm married to one).
Now, whether climate change = global warming, that's another crock altogether.
Helped by high prices for its farm exports, Argentina has recovered vigorously from its economic collapse of 2001-02. Unemployment has fallen from a peak of 21% to 10% (excluding those on workfare programmes); today, 27% of Argentines live in poverty, compared with more than half in 2002.
Of course a round-up of Latin American news must include Venezuela: Jane's Intelligence reports,
Oiling the axis - Iran and Venezuela develop closer ties This Iran-Venezuela alliance within OPEC has caused friction with Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and a nominal ally of the US, which favours more modest crude prices by seeking higher output. Nonetheless, the Venezuelan and Iranian goal of higher prices has come about owing to a number of factors, including a lack of refinery capacity, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, an increase in demand and climatic conditions, helping to drive up the price of crude oil from around USD28 per barrel in 2000 to an average of USD65 during 2006.
Caracas and Tehran have found common cause in favouring higher oil prices for political ends: as a lever to pull the balance of power away from oil-consuming countries, especially the US, which is still the world's biggest consumer.
According to Alberto Garrido, a Venezuelan political analyst who has charted the historical rise of Ch�vez: "Chavez sees himself and Ahmadinejad as brothers defining a strategic anti-US alliance that is part of an ambitious and well-structured global project."
Mr Chavez's absence from Asuncion may, however, mark a turning point. He took umbrage at a resolution passed by Brazil's Senate criticising his recent silencing of the main opposition television channel. Brazil's Congress (like Paraguay's) has yet to ratify Venezuela's entry to Mercosur, and after insults from Mr Chávez is unlikely to do so soon. That leaves Venezuela in the oxymoronic situation of being a "full member in process of accession". Mr Chávez said this week that he would withdraw Venezuela's application unless it was approved in three months. He seems interested in Mercosur chiefly as a political platform. Free trade would expose the big inefficiencies engendered by his statist economic policy.
I continue to be optimistic about Lula:
Since Lula's re-election last October Brazil's foreign policy has seemed more pragmatic and less driven by leftist ideology. Lula has not concealed his irritation with Mr Chávez's antics. There is no sign yet that Brazil's president wants a clear breach with his oil-rich friend and rival. But if Mr Chávez's brinkmanship backfires, that might just be the best thing that has happened to Mercosur for years.
A while ago when I read that the Immigration Bill exempted illegals from paying back taxes, I said I should have declared myself an illegal alien. Here's yet another reason: Mexican Migrants Take Free Flight Home
Hernandez was one of 74 migrants who flew to the Mexican capital Monday under a U.S. summer program, now in its fourth year, that gives participants free transportation all the way to their hometowns instead of simply deporting them back across the border.
A little bit of r&r, and it starts all over again:
Hernandez said he volunteered to get a free trip to rest and visit his family in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero. In a couple of weeks, he said, he'll try his luck again in the desert.
Now, what does that mean exactly? Not much. Cable, even if Supercable were to be included, does not reach 25% of Venezuelan homes. Even adding Internet (by the way, those who can watch RCTV through Internet and YouTube certainly can afford cable), even adding those who steal the signal of some cable company, no more than 30% of Venezuelan homes have access to some form of cable TV, and mostly in upper income areas: poorer areas simply cannot afford a cable bill unless a few pool together and steal the signal with the complicity of the payer. One of the reasons by the way why you see many Direct TV satellite dishes in the barrios is that Direct TV signal cannot be stolen that easily. Besides, installing expensive and vulnerable ground line in popular district is a deterrent for other systems than Direct TV. The paradox is that the poor are forced to buy the more expensive satellite system if they want to escape Chavez blabber.
The result is that RCTV will go from a 100% national coverage to a 30% coverage AT BEST. With the consequent decrease in advertising revenue. The implications for RCTV is that it will be difficult to keep its large staff and producing capabilities and news coverage, at least as long as it does not manage to sell enough production overseas. Right now, outside the US and Colombia I do not see that many buyers for anything Venezuelan except soap operas.
Memo to Rafael Correa: If, as head of state, you have to deny being stupid to the author of a book whose title is 'The Idiot Returns' where he's made you Exhibit A, it's a pretty forgone conclusion that you are even stupider than you were written about! If you had a lick of sense, and you don't, you might like to keep it all as quiet as possible.
I don't have a link to The Idiot Returns, but here's the first one in the series,
In the five years between the 2002 kidnapping of 12 state legislators by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the rebels' recent announcement that 11 of those hostages have been killed, much has changed for the better in Colombia. The lawmakers were taken at a time when the state was very weak. Their murders, on the other hand, appear to be a desperate act by a frustrated band of thugs who have failed to achieve their desired results with terror.
Colombia today is significantly more secure and economically healthier than it was in 2002. Yet as events in recent weeks reminded us, two dark clouds remain parked over the country.
The first is the ruthlessness of organized crime networks like the FARC, which have blossomed during the U.S. war against cocaine. Thanks to the policy of prohibition coupled with strong demand, the FARC remains a well-funded menace even though it has no popular support.
The second source of trouble -- most recently evidenced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's announcement that her party will block the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement -- is the unrelenting opposition of Congressional Democrats to anything that could be considered helpful to defeating terror and putting Colombia on surer economic footing.
The U.S. war on drugs, which is backed by both Republicans and Democrats and blames Colombia for the fact that Americans use cocaine, is immoral on its own. But as the guerrillas have gotten into the narcotics trafficking business, Democrats have added insult to injury by arrogantly micromanaging the war from Washington with advice from left-wing NGOs. Passed in 1997, the Leahy Law (named for Sen. Patrick Leahy, D., Vt.) mandates that any officer charged with "credible allegations" of human-rights violations be relieved of his command lest the country lose its U.S. aid to the military. It didn't take the rebels long to see opportunity in the law. They promptly began ginning up accusations against the country's finest generals. It didn't matter that the evidence almost always turned out to be suborned perjury. Careers were destroyed and the armed forces leadership gutted.
President Álvaro Uribe, who took office in August 2002, recognized what was happening and set out to rebuild the military, strengthen the presence of the state and end any speculation that the government might seek a path of appeasement in the face of violence. He has made great progress. The guerrillas are now back on their heels and kidnapping and murder rates are down substantially. Bear Stearns analyst Tim Kearney, who just returned from a trip to Colombia reports that the economy is "firing on all cylinders" due to "a combination of a better security environment, as well as the government's market-oriented reforms." He adds that, "with investment driving a powerful rebound, we now think that real GDP growth will reach 6.4% in 2007."
If Colombia's hard left was upset before with Mr. Uribe, this has really stirred up the nest. Their only hope is help from Washington so they are returning to what worked before, this time recyling tired old charges that the president has links to paramilitary groups and insisting that the government has been protecting assassins who target union leaders.
Democrats seem only too happy to help. They can't invoke the Leahy Law against civilians but blocking the FTA in the name of "human rights" is just as good. It satisfies the "sandalistas," who still dream of a Cuban revolution for all of Latin America, and it makes the most important Democratic Party constituent, the AFL-CIO, happy by knocking off any threat of new international competition.
This may be good for shoring up the Democrat's base but it is harmful to U.S. geopolitical interests in the Western Hemisphere and to an important U.S. ally and it will dash the hopes for a better life of millions of impoverished Colombians. Either the Democrats have very poor foreign policy judgment or they have sympathy for the devil.
Read every word, and watch the video included in that post.
our rivals are weaker and America is far stronger than many think.
Take oil. With oil prices at nearly $70 a barrel, Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez seem invincible as they rally anti-American feeling.
But if we find alternate energy sources, or reduce slightly our oil hunger, we can defang all three rather quickly. None of their countries have a middle class or a culture of entrepreneurship to discover and disseminate new knowledge.
Russia and Europe are shrinking. China is an aging nation of only children. The only thing the hard-working Chinese fear more than their bankrupt communist dictatorship is getting rid of it.
True, the economies of China and India have made amazing progress. But both have rocky rendezvous ahead with all the social and cultural problems that we long ago addressed in the 20th century.
And European elites can't blame their problems - a bullying Russia, Islamic terrorists, unassimilated minorities and high unemployment - all on George Bush's swagger and accent. The recent elections of Angela Merkel in Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy in France suggest that Europe's cheap anti-Americanism may be ending, and that our practices of more open markets, lower taxes and less state control are preferrable to the European status quo.
In truth, a never-stronger America is being tested as never before. The world is watching whether we win or lose in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Middle East is either going to reform or remain an oil-rich tribal mess that endangers the entire world.
Q: I'm guessing you're not in favor of the Iraq troop withdrawal bills being proposed right now in Congress.
GS: It's not the policies and the bills; it's how we treat our military. It's how we treat our young men or women who go out there, at 18 years old, and risk their lives. There's no fame, they're certainly not getting rich, and a lot of them are dying, simply for something they believe. By the way, it's a volunteer army, all volunteer. The fact that anybody would have a fucking thing to say about that is astonishing. And the VA hospital that Sophie and I went to, it's about an hour and a half down the road from Malibu. These morons can't get up off their asses and out of their $10 million homes, get into their SUVs, and drive down to the VA hospital just to say, "Hey, what you do matters." Doesn't matter what they think of President Bush. It matters that 18-year-olds are getting out there and risking their lives. I didn't see a single person there. That's the most embarrassing thing. I'm furious at Hollywood.
or as we say in Joisy, after the farookin' flood. If you recall my April 16 post, we had a lot of flooding in the area.
These are the steps to the small stone bridge in Kingston. This is what they looked like then: And this is what they look like now. The car hidden by the trees would have been entirely under water. This is what the stone bridge looked like on April 16; as you can see the entire ground floor and foundations of the house were submerged: Yesterday I took this picture standing on that very bridge: On April 16, the Millstone River, the Raritan and Delaware Canal and Carnegie Lake overflowed to the point where they became one torrent: and Route 27 was closed because the bridge to Kingston was under water; This is how far the waters have receeded; they are still slightly higher than usual but you can appreciate the difference by looking at the cars going over the bridge: On April 16 Siggy helped me out with the podcast, which you can still listen to here. As I was telling him the other day, the Siggy has the fans. While at the podcast page, don't miss my latest Blog Talk Radio podcast.
The real World Bank scandal is that Mr. Wolfowitz's enemies don't care much about Africa. The French and Brits who want him ousted have never entirely shaken the paternalism they developed during the colonial era. Their real priority is controlling the bank purse-strings and perquisites.
Indeed, to the extent that last week's bloodshed clarified anything, it is that the battle of Baghdad is increasingly a battle against al-Qaeda. Whether we like it or not, al-Qaeda views the Iraqi capital as a central front of its war against us.
After 36 hours of torrential rain and high winds, we've had substantial flooding unlike any I've seen in 18 years of living in Princeton. Not even when Hurricane Floyd went through the area has there been as much flooding.
After spending the morning drying my basement, I thought I'd go check out what the evening commute was looking like in the area near my house. The governor had declared a state of emergency this morning so traffic was much lighter than usual.
The parking lot at church at the corner of River Road and Route 27 (Princeton-Kingston Rd) was flooded, except for a small section where a few cars were able to park: Carnegie Lake (the scenic lake shown during the titles of House) overflowed its banks: The first floor of the house in Kingston which I believe was formerly a mill at the end of Carnegie Lake is totally flooded: This canoe and its dock (the black triangle in the center of the photo) were carried all the way here and are now stuck in front of the patio doors. Whoever tied the canoe knows what they're doing: the knot held. Normally these steps go down to a small stone bridge from which you can walk from Route 27 to the Canal: This is what the stone bridge looks like right now: The Millstone River, the Raritan and Delaware Canal and Carnegie Lake overflowed to the point where they are one torrent: Route 27 is closed because the bridge to Kingston is under water:
I then headed to Route 1 via Harrison Street. Harrison Street is closed from the corner of Faculty Road all the way to Route 1. [Note, Tues April 12: The Harrison St bridge over the lake was dry; the problem is the area between the bridge and Rte 1, which routinely floods]. Harrison Street traffic heading out of town was being detoured to Washington Road. It wasn't moving.
Last night the wind was howling so loud it kept waking me up; when I headed to Starbucks this morning we had hail; this afternoon, snow flurries. We're expected to have more rain for the next 24 hours.
Tonight I'll follow my advice, have some sugar-free hot chocolate, light up the fireplace, and watch 24.
For the first time in ten days the outdoor temperature is nearing 30F.
It's been so cold (how cold is it?) that for the first time in the many years we've lived in this house, ice stalagmites are rising up from the ground, formed from the water condensation from the furnaces.
It's a shocking sight.
Take a look: Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes nature plays up the imagery.
Fausta was born and raised in Santurce, Puerto Rico and is a long-term resident of Princeton, New Jersey. She discusses New Jersey, taxation, current events, and how news are reported in the French and Spanish-language media at Fausta's Blog.
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Ice storm in US claims 15 lives 
This photo is captioned,
