ERIC HOLDER, Attorney General
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Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,200
Demorcracy Now wrote:AMY GOODMAN: Mario, before you go, I did want to ask you overall about the reaction in Colombia on Tuesday night to the election of Barack Obama.
MARIO MURILLO: The reaction was very positive. I was actually in southern Colombia in Cauca, actually accompanying the indigenous community that they were starting their march up to Bogota. And we were watching the returns. And the people were amazed at seeing the victory of Barack Obama. They’re not naive to think that it’s going to be a complete transformation, in terms of relations between Colombia and the United States, but there is a sense of hope.
One of the things that was raised, and I should draw attention to the viewers and listeners of Democracy Now!, is a concern about the potential Attorney General choice. There’s been talk about a close ally and friend of Obama as a potential Attorney General for the United States, Eric Holder, who is currently defending Chiquita Brands International in its defense against dozens of plaintiffs here in Colombia, working families who were targeted by paramilitaries who were funded to the tune of $1.7 million over the last several years. It’s a major scandal. And if this guy becomes the Attorney General under an Obama administration, then it’s going to be really hard to find justice in this case coming from the United States.
ERIC HOLDER, Attorney General and looks like he'll accept the job.
What do ya think?
Peace
*We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
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holy....someone throw his supporters a frickn bone already!
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
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( o.O)
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Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/30/eric-holder-obamas-attorn_n_137696.html
The basic facts on Holder, from the Washington Post:
Credentials: Former judge, D.C. Superior Court; former deputy attorney general in the Justice Department; former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
What he offers: Holder has extensive experience in the criminal justice system and with civil court disputes. He staunchly backed community policing programs to reduce violent crime and raised morale within the Justice Department during his tenure. Holder served as a co-chairman of the Obama presidential campaign.
Vetting: Holder took flak in 2001 for failing to object to a last-minute pardon request for fugitive Marc Rich, whose ex-wife is a prolific Democratic Party donor, when others in the Clinton administration pushed through the petition during its last hours in office.
Quote: "Our needlessly abusive and unlawful practices in the 'war on terror' have diminished our standing in the world community and made us less, rather than more, safe," Holder told an American Constitution Society for Law and Policy audience this year. "For the sake of our safety and security, and because it is the right thing to do, the next president must move immediately to reclaim America's standing in the world as a nation that cherishes and protects individual freedom and basic human rights."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/12/AR2008111202680.html?nav=rss_politics
yeah, this guy sounds like a real dick....
lets get those troops piled into Afghanistan and hunt for Bin Laden in Pakistan!
That'll for sure show the world what's right from wrong.
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
i have zero issue with that...
this country is real fucked up right now, in quite a few major ways... i mean in a real bad, and it could get much worse... this is going to take big ideas, cooperation, and people who know how to get shit done and have some experience doing it
the last thing i would want is the President-Elect to start naming people to his cabinet who are completely green and naive to how to get shit done in this country, or are total cronies unqualified for the position. we need some people in there with political experience and large government experiece
we cannot afford any mistakes right now, this is no time to take a chance on selecting a "Brownie" for a spot on the cabinet...
President-Elect Obama steers the major policy platforms, and selects the people he thinks can best implement these policies for his cabinet... and i have confidence he can pull this off
Good point in that I thought of this too, many of his choices so far have had experience and where did they get that experience the Clinton administration. Yes they maybe Clinton hold overs and I gather better to have them with Democratic experience than some greenie moderate.
Now that said some of these people have a past that is NOT as clear as some would like. I just wanted to point that out about Eric holder. Obama chose them he better keep them in check, we shall see wishing him the best.
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
well i have a big issue with it, although i barely care anymore other than to comment about it in a rock band's political forum...
the Democrats may be the smarter, more world-wise crooks, but they're still part of a crooked system. it just seems like an endless cycle of letting the Republican robber-barons raid the treasury and the Dems can come back and play Good Cop and regulate the system again without ever arresting the robbers.
i mean, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et all should be rotting in prison... will it ever happen though??? of course not. and they were not just robbers, but robbers with blood on their hands. but it's OK. a New Hope is here!
i mean, i fucking voted for Obama, but i felt backed into a corner with School Teacher Palin ready to smack me with a ruler. so i rebelled in the only way that seemed reasonably useful.
I think there are plenty of qualified people out there who would be ready to handle such tough jobs. I don't know who they are - the highest position I ever held was Comm. Director of the Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts (still makes me laugh) - but surely there's gotta be hard-working trustworthy people out there. so when the majority of his picks are former Clinton officials and Hillary Clinton herself might be Secretary of State... is this the change we were expected to believe in?
And its not, yeah lets give this country a few million to fight a rebellion there...its major support. Colombia is the third largest recipient of US military aid in the world. I wrote to my Senators about the issue, they responded directly actually, saying they were fighting the war on drugs, trying to prevent cocaine from getting onto US streets. Which completely ignored the very obvious and proven ties the Colombian gov't has to the drug trade. Paramilitaries operating in Columbia have direct ties to the Colombian miltary-former officers end up running paramilitary units, most of the time. And these paramilitary groups are the ones responsible for most of the violence-violence often attributed to Farc, and for most of the coca production. they control the farmers. Like the time in the 90's when a Colombian General was arrested in a Florida airport with tons of cocaine on his plane, that's the standard.
And they ignored a very important aspect in fighting a war on drugs...a US gov't sponsored report, one they put millions of dollars in to-the RAND report-claims, "prevention" is the best way to fight drug use in the United States. Yet Bill Clinton signed off on a $2 billion 'aid' package that included around 50 Apache gunships to Columbia-my question is how the fuck are you going to stop the coca production with Apache gunships? And the answer is you can't. The war on drugs is like any other war the US wages, its a fucking pretext. Apache gunships are used to fight the guerillas. To fight against an indigenous uprising, a popular uprising. The simple fact that FARC has been fighting and functioning for over 20 years is proof they have popular support. Its the will of Columbia vs. the guns of the US military.
The resource rich Columbia is the prize. Corporate interest is high. And so gov't interest is high. Hawks send troops, doves send guns. Both want the same thing- the subjugation of the Colombian people. And that's something I don't think is going to happen, whatever Obama does.
Notice the correlation between US military aid and human rights abuses-its almost 1-1. Israel is right up on top, Turkey right behind, and Colombia bringing up third. In this case that's a direct ratio to US military aid.
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
um...
a....
huh...?
Clearly.
Oh yeah, Holder would simply have to recuse himself from the case as he took this case as a private practicing attorney, not as a government official.
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Bush Open To Stimulus Package If Dems Drop Opposition To Colombia Free-Trade Deal
New York Times | JACKIE CALMES | November 10, 2008 11:10 PM
Into the middle of a political standoff between the White House and Democrats on Monday as President-elect Barack Obama urged President Bush to support immediate emergency aid.
Mr. Bush indicated at the meeting that he might support some aid and a broader economic stimulus package if Mr. Obama and Congressional Democrats dropped their opposition to a free-trade agreement with Colombia, a measure for which Mr. Bush has long fought, people familiar with the discussion said.
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White House Denies Attempt to Link Auto Industry Bailout to Colombia Pact
The Bush administration is denying reports it wants to link aid to the auto industry to Democratic support for a free trade pact with Colombia. Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, are preparing to push for emergency legislation to help the automakers during the lame-duck session of Congress next week. We speak to Mark Brenner of Labor Notes and Hofstra University professor and journalist Mario Murillo here in New York.