That not-so-obscure book from 1970, Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America (1970) that opened the eyes of so many to the Dirty Wars in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and tells the history of Latin America in the voice of a master storyteller, is rising on the sales charts because Hugo Chávez gave it to Obama at the Americas summit! Let's hear it for the power of the book! Tweets on "Galeano Open Veins" are fascinating. So are those with "venas abiertas".
MNIndy links to St Cloud paper's editorial on our most embarassing legistlator, Michelle Bachman. This is newsworthy because the same paper refers to the late Sen. Wellstone as an "extremist" (!) but said that at least he did something useful. Could it be that even conservative Minnesotan's see her as irrelevant now?
"Two straight years of her consistently spewing misleading snippets about important issues yet never stepping beyond those statements to find realistic solutions make it clear she is all about extremism and cares nothing about crafting viable public policy.
via The Smirking Chimpa, a discussion of the squabbling over the Obama administration's release of the torture memos, ones we know were there all the time, but that could be ignored because the mainstream press and Congress refused to follow up on the story while Bush was in office. International human rights advocate Raymond Budelman's blistering post refutes Bush officials claims that disclosing illegal and immorant use of torture "weakens" America, but I'm more interested in the distressing issues of non-prosecutions:
If President Obama is said to be weakening this country, thus compromising its security, it is not through the release of secret OLC memos that rationalize the irrational, attempt to legalize the illegal, and defend the indefensible; instead it is because President Obama is going to let the torturous bastards who implemented, enforced, and executed such immoral policies walk the streets freely.I want to believe that, as usual, Obama has a long-view strategy in mind: first step, the reveal, second step: Congress steps up and investigates, prosecutes? I need to learn more about this.
I also need time to read up in depth about Obama's summit in Latin America from the point of view of the Latin American press. For now, I'm looking at this report on his summing-up press conference in Trinidad. Amy Kligman's analysis points out that the gestures of shaking hands, receiving a book, listening and declaring the U.S. ready to make changes in relations are all extremely important, but that Obama did not receive the love-fest he had in Europe, and for good reason. Daniel Ortega may be a sell-out rat bastard, but he and his fellow Sandinista leaders spent ten years fighting the U.S. contra war that ultimately removed them from power and turned around most of the gains of their revolution. Every country in Latin America knows of U.S. interference and hypocrisy regarding human rights, the drug wars, trade, and neo-colonialism.
Will we really see change in U.S policy in Latin America? It's too soon to tell how far it will go, but Obama is savvy to link lifting the boycott against Cuba to Raul Castro needing to release political prisoners in Cuba. He's lifted restrictions on Cuban Americand traveling to Cuba and sending money; this throws the ball into Castro's court.
Bloggers de Cuba links to R. Castro's televised response. As is always the case when a blogger posts from Cuba itself, despite the censorhip, the most interesting discussion comes in the comments.
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