Category Foreign

Entries 46 Total

Who Invited the International Court to This Party?

Aug 4, 08 1:35 PM

In June 1993, my family was moving again, but we still watched the news.  I’ll never forget that summer watching the news in Houston that two teenage girls had gone missing.  Just a couple of days later, I watched on the news as the father of one of those girls stole a news van and rushed to the scene police had found of two dead girls.  Police had to hold him back as he cried, “does she have blond hair?”

Even then, if you called 911 the police could track you down by the phone number that appeared when you called.  They found a teenage boy who admitted that his brother had been involved in killing the girls.  Within hours, Peter Cantu, Jose Medellin, Derrick O’Brien, Efrain Perez and Raul Villareal were in custody and each was ratting the other out.  They were members in a gang called the Black and Whites, and the boys were jumping in Raul (meaning that he was being initiated into the gang).  The beating over, they started drinking, and two teenage girls tried to walk by across the train tracks that ran through the park.  They grabbed one, Elizabeth Pena, and threw her to the ground; the other, Jennifer Ertman, tried to run but came back when her friend cried for help.

They were both raped repeatedly for more than an hour.  O’Brien took off his belt to strangle one of the girls and the belt broke.  They then took the girls’ own shoelaces and finished the job with them.  They left behind part of the belt as they moved the bodies from the clearing near the tracks to the nearby wooded area.  It took four days for the bodies to be found, by which time they were decomposing in the Houston heat and humidity.  The medical examiner noted that the extreme decay around the girls’ throats, cheasts and genetalia spoke to the horrific nature of their deaths and the brutalities they suffered at the hands of their killers.

The rest of the broken belt was found in O’Brien’s home and all of them eventually confessed to their roles in the murder.  Raul Villareal was the only one to get a relatively light sentence: 40 years.  The rest were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

O’Brien has already been executed.  Several years after Medellin’s conviction, some hotshot attorney wised up to a little-known rule that required that all foreign nationals be given access to their home countries’ diplomats within three days of being arrested for any crime.  Medellin, you see, was brought to the US from Mexico at the age of 3.  He never told anyone after being arrested that he was actually a Mexican national and didn’t have legal status as an immigrant.  He didn’t tell anyone until years after he committed a horrid crime, when someone told him he might escape the death penalty based on this teensy little technicality.

Suddenly, Medellin took center stage in an international fight to require the United States to re-open 51 other cases in which foreign nationals were given the death penalty without having been given access to their nation’s consulate attorneys.  The same George W. Bush who picked up a sword and danced with the Saudis kowtowed to the demand, trying to use his position to force the states to comply.  Texas, bein’ the stubborn ol’ mules that they are, refused.  It went all the way to the US Supreme Court, and even the liberal judges there backed Texas law, refusing to bow to the wishes of the “International Court of Justice” (whatever the hell that means).

(Sidenote: if you go to the CCADP website, a Canadian group fighting to abolish the death penalty, you’ll see the Medellin has his own webpage.  It’s been quoted by the Houston Chronicle with no regard for the reality of what Medellin is saying.  He talks about joining the military, then says, “would have joined here, but I’m a Mexican, not a traitor.”  But the very first words he says on that profile are, “My life is in black and white, just like the old Western movies…”  In case you didn’t catch that, go back and read which gang this guy belongs to.  He’s giving a shout out to his homeboys in gang code and nobody has caught it yet.  Don’t forget, I used to work with gang crap every single day.)

Despite all the broo-ha-ha to save Medellin’s life, he’s scheduled to be executed tomorrow, August 5, in the death chamber at the Polunsky Unit in the Huntsville facility of TDCJ.  Texas refuses to recognize demands by the international community to halt the execution.  Barring an invasion by a UN force (hey, there’s a first time for everything), Medellin will be executed for his crime.

There’s been much ado about whether Texas should give a stay of execution because of diplomatic concerns.  Yet I fail to see why we should be beholden to anyone not in this country.  I promise you, the first time we cave in and allow international opinion to influence any decision in America, it will open the floodgates.  We’ll never get them to stop trying to dictate what we do here.  We are a sovereign nation, we adhere to our own law, and if the international community wishes to have any say in our criminal justice dealings, then they’d better damn well let us have a say in theirs.

I find it interesting, though, just how rabid the rest of the world is to force America into submission on this issue.  I’d like to know where they are every day when women in Muslim countries are stoned to death for violating Sharia law.  I’d like to know where they were when two young gay men were arrested, tried and hung in Iran within one week just for being gay.  I’d like to know where they are when girls across the Arab world are forced to endure female circumcision (if you don’t know what it is, trust me–you don’t want to).  I’d like to know where all these freakin’ do-gooders are when Palestinian children are indoctrinated with terrorist beliefs, taught to believe that blowing yourself up to kill infidels in the name of Allah makes you some kind of damned hero–in public schools.

What’s good for one is good for all.  At least when you’re talking to someone who cares about following the rules.  Randy Ertman, the father of Jennifer Ertman, had this to say about the whole thing:  “The world court don’t mean diddly. This business belongs in the state of Texas … the rest of them can go to hell.”

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A False Ally

Jul 12, 08 4:11 PM

This blurb from FoxNews.com got me going a bit.

 NEW YORK —  Pakistan’s top diplomat says there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his nation, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaida leader.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told The Associated Press Saturday that his nation’s new government has ruled out permitting any such military operations, covert or otherwise, to catch militants.

In the interview, he said that “any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive,” and that it will create “an anti-U.S. feeling.”

The United States, increasingly frustrated as al-Qaida, the Taliban and other militants thrive in Pakistan’s remote areas and in neighboring Afghanistan, has offered U.S. troops to strike at terror networks.

Let me replay one sentence of that for you.

In the interview, he said that “any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive,” and that it will create “an anti-U.S. feeling.”

Anti-US feeling?  Roam the streets of Karachi or Islamabad and figure out what the “feeling” is concerning the US.  THEY HATE US ANYWAY.  I fail to understand how we need the permission of these foreign aid leeches in order to kill our public enemy number one. Why do we care that our approval rating amongst the Pakistani populace might fall from 8% to 3% if we attack killers on their soil?

I had a lot of hope for the new government of Pakistan.  But they have shown themselves to be spineless pacifists who are NOT dedicated to the eradication of terrorist elements in their nation.  Even after these elements assassinated their beloved leader (Bhutto) and have continued to kill innocent citizens within their nation, the Pakistani government has shown little resolve or intestinal fortitude.  Instead, they hope that “negotiation” will solve their problems.

What a joke. Ronald Reagan was right.  You don’t negotiate with terrorists.  It gets you nowhere.

 

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Media Savvy Dictator

Jun 15, 08 9:30 AM

Apparently Venezuelan dictator, Hugo Chavez, has some good media and image consultants.  He’s come so far that he is finally back in the good graces of the New York Times.  That’s sweet.

There is good news inside Venezuela too. On the same weekend that Mr. Chávez turned on the FARC, he suspended a chilling new law he had enacted by decree that would have forced Venezuelans to cooperate with the intelligence services or go to jail. He has also withdrawn a school curriculum that blasted capitalism as a force to subjugate the people.

That must be a relief for the NYT editorial board.  After all, Chavez toes their ideological line.  He’s just making it easier now for the liberal press (what an oxymoron) to justify another despot.  Maybe Reid and Pelosi should call up Hugo and get the number of his consultant.

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More Race and Hypocrisy

Jun 15, 08 9:00 AM

While we’re dealing with race and hypocrites, let’s turn to one of my favorite subjects and one of my favorite writers.  Jeff Jacoby, of the Boston Globe, broaches the hypocrisy rampant in the West’s response to the events in Zimbabwe.

In less than two weeks, the people of Zimbabwe will vote in the farcical presidential runoff election.  As I’ve stated before, the runoff is unnecessary as MDC candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai defeated Zimbabwe’s dictator with at least 60% of the vote – that is before Mugabe and his minions changed the results to force the follow-up election.

There’s probably no need to recount the reasons that Mugabe needs to go.  But in case you were comatose or just sleeping, Jacoby sums it up rather nicely when pointing to Mugabe’s paranoia about humanitarian aid agencies -

Mugabe claimed, preposterously, that the humanitarian agencies were trying “to cripple Zimbabwe’s economy” and bring about “illegal regime change.”

Actually, it his own demented and dictatorial misrule that has destroyed the country, turning what was once a prosperous land into the world’s most rapidly collapsing economy. And it is his determination to cling to power by any means – including starving and terrorizing voters who support a change in government – that has filled Zimbabwe not just with hunger and sickness but with savagery and bloodshed as well.

The runoff now seems to be hopeless for the MDC as Mugabe and his ZANU-PF loyalists have terrorized the voters and stifled (or tortured and killed) the opposition.

“ZANU-PF and its allies have . . . established torture camps and organized abusive ‘re-education’ meetings around the country to compel MDC supporters into voting for Mugabe,” the report says. Hundreds of voters have been flogged with sticks, whips, bicycle chains, and metal bars. In one “re-education” meeting May 5, “ZANU-PF officials and ‘war veterans’ beat six men to death and tortured another 70 men and women, including a 76-year-old woman publicly thrashed in front of assembled villagers.”

In other meetings, military officers have threatened to kill anyone who votes for the opposition. “Each villager would be given a bullet to hold in their hands. Then a soldier would say, ‘If you vote for MDC in the presidential runoff election, you have seen the bullets, we have enough for each one of you, so beware.’ “

So, what is the international community (specifically the West) doing about all this?  Precisely the same thing they did about Saddam Hussein and his murderous regime for decades – nothing.  Oh sure – there have been the obligatory condemnations and petty sanctions.  But, just as they were willing to turn a blind eye to Saddam’s rape rooms and the millions killed in the Rwandan and Darfur genocides, the world has refused to do anything substantial about the tragedy in Zimbabwe.

Why not?  Well, Jacoby says it best -

But why do the rest of us do nothing? Why is the free world so indifferent to the enormities committed by Mugabe and his bullies? Where are the demonstrations outside Zimbabwe’s embassies? Where are the international boycotts, the UN resolutions, the presidential and papal condemnations? Where is the International Criminal Court indictment of Mugabe for his long career of murder, torture, and other crimes against humanity?

Let us be honest: If the people of Zimbabwe were being terrorized by a white despot – if it were a white ruling party whose goons were beating them and burning their homes – the whole world would be aroused on their behalf. Surely they deserve no less just because their oppressor is black.

Touche, Mr. Jacoby.  The prosecution rests its case.  How sad and vile.

 

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Bizarre Things In Austria

Apr 27, 08 12:56 PM

This has absolutely nothing to do with politics, but I found this fascinating and very weird.  Here’s the story…

An Austrian woman says she was kept prisoner and abused by her own father for 24 years in a basement dungeon in eastern Austria, where she bore him six children, Austrian police said on Sunday…..

She told police her father Joseph lured her into the basement of their house in the town of Amstetten in 1984, and drugged and handcuffed her before locking her up……

The woman said Joseph provided her and three of her children, who were locked up with her, with clothing and food.

Ok.  Plausible.  Stranger and more perverse things have happened in this twisted world.  BUT HERE’S THE KICKER….

His wife Rosemarie had not been aware of what was going on.

WHAT????  How the hell do you not know that your daughter and her kids fathered by your own husband  were locked in the basement for decades????  I nearly choked on that one.

I have to be missing something here.  It’ll be interesting to see all the facts.  I’m really intrigued by the fact that this lady was kept in the basement for 24 years.  And what about the other 3 kids?  The article only mentions 3 in the basement, but said she had 6 kids.  And who delivered these kids????

The wife of this perv must be a vegetable or something.  Or maybe this basement was detached from the house.  Or maybe this is all made up to cover an incestuous relationship.  I have no clue. This is one of the most bizarre things I have ever heard. 

Update:  More of the story is starting to come out now.  I figured it would.  But there are a whole lot of questions still unanswered.  There is some speculation that the old man didn’t act alone.  I tend to wonder how he could have acted alone without suspicion.  Regardless, I still don’t understand how his wife could not have known something.  She’s receiving psychiatric attention now.  Everyone in this case needs it.  This is the most bizarre thing I think I have ever seen or heard.  And I guarantee that there is more to come.  We don’t know everything yet.

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“Frivolous Lawsuit” Defined

Apr 24, 08 4:35 PM

This one is strange and a little on the humorous side.  A couple of Chinese citizens have decided to file suit against CNN for comments that they and their government deemed offensive.

A Chinese primary school teacher and a beautician have filed a suit against CNN in New York over remarks they say insulted the Chinese people and are seeking $1.3 billion in compensation — $1 per person in China, a Hong Kong newspaper reported.

The case against the Atlanta-based cable channel, its parent company Turner Broadcasting and Jack Cafferty, the offending commentator, comes after 14 lawyers launched a similar suit in Beijing alleging that Cafferty’s remarks earlier this month violated the dignity and reputation of the Chinese people.

Wow -  pretty hefty and, I think, unprecedented.  So what, pray tell, was the offense that was uttered and caused such a backlash?

Cafferty said the United States imported Chinese-made “junk with the lead paint on them and the poisoned pet food” and added: “They’re basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years”.

This baffles and befuddles me for two reasons.  #1:  I can’t believe that a CNN commentator would actually make such an un-PC claim that would speak to the absolute truth of a matter.  #2:  I can’t believe that anyone, even in China, would be offended by the obvious truth. 

Of course, on #2, I guess I can sort of understand.  PC types in this nation are offended by the truth quite frequently.  I guess that I am more amazed that a CNN commentator would actually get one right for once.

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Welcoming Back An Old Friend

Apr 18, 08 6:38 PM

Italy voted this week.  And their voices were loud and clear.  They voted to bring back the conservative, pro-American administration of Silvio Berlusconi.  They didn’t just bring him and his bloc, People of Freedom, back to power.  They gave him a resounding mandate over the previous left-of-center coalition.

Berlusconi’s People of Freedom bloc won 47 percent of the votes, the highest score ever for an Italian coalition – 340 seats in the national assembly. Veltroni’s Democratic Party received 38 percent of the votes and 239 seats. Thus, Berlusconi ends up with a parliamentary majority of 101 seats, an Italian record. (By comparison, Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s outgoing coalition had a one-seat majority.)

The extremist parties of both left and right almost evaporated. The Communists, one of the two largest parties in Italy for more than half a century, together with their extreme-left allies, ended up with just 3 percent of the votes and no seats.

The extreme right, with Alessandra Mussolini, the Fascist dictator’s granddaughter, as its mascot, did even worse, collecting 2 percent of the votes. Italy will also become the first major European nation to have no Greens in its new parliament.

That is just a sweet win.  And it goes to show that some Europeans are sick and tired of the leftist policies of the Euro-socialists.  Berlusconi is a controversial figure and is probably no angel.  But he, along with France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy, represent a different breed of European politicians.

Under President Nicolas Sarkozy, France has decided to rejoin the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a full member. Sarkozy has also canceled his predecessor Jacque Chirac’s plan to withdraw French troops from Afghanistan. (In fact he has just agreed to send an extra 800 men to Afghanistan.)

Bound by a friendship dating to the ’80s, Sarkozy and Berlusconi are determined to strengthen the Atlantic alliance under US leadership, an objective also shared by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, albeit with far less passion.

This is great news for the US and Europe in general.  Europe has seen a resurgence of conservativism (though I can’t find an authority who will claim that fact).  It’s ironic that this is occuring at the same that the US has taken a leftward detour by electing Democrats to power.  If McCain is elected as president of the US, I have a good feeling about the chance that trans-Atlantic relations will peak to a level not seen since the days of Reagan, Thatcher, Kohl, et al.

Let’s just hope that US voters will pick up on the thing that millions of European voters seem to realize – that socialist, anti-US rhetoric won’t get you very far.  The elections of Berlusconi, Merkel and Sarkozy are exciting.  It would be a shame to see US voters waste this grand opportunity by electing an antagonist like Obama or Clinton to office. 

If McCain gets the nod, I will be willing to predict that British PM Gordon Brown may need to count his days in power as numbered.  That would represent a conservative sweep for the old Western alliance.  Then they can make a difference to offset Russian and Chinese influences.  We could see an alliance not seen since the 1980s.  I am an enthusiast of foreign policy and have been waiting for this moment for many years now. 

This election in Italy certainly brought a lot of good news.  Now it’s up to us.

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A New Day For Zimbabwe

Apr 2, 08 4:37 PM

I don’t think that I’ve ever gotten a comment on one of my Zimbabwe posts (on my old blog either), but it’s a situation I have always watched closely.  It has always been one of the greatest mysteries (from my perspective) in the world of international affairs.  Here is a nation with a nominally democratic government led by an 84 year-old dictator.  Mugabe has a record of human rights abuses and brutal policies against his own people. But his major crime has been throwing his nation into poverty. 

Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Africa in the 80s and 90s.  Now they are inflicted with 100,000% inflation and 80+% unemployment.  The black market is alive and well because stores have a major shortage of common goods.  Farms, once owned by mainly whites, were seized and handed to Mugabe cronies and squatters who ran the once-prosperous enterprises into the ground.  His major affront to the people of his nation is the economic devastation he has caused in this once-proud country.

Nevertheless, the people of Zimbabwe have tolerated this for many years.  Granted, Mugabe did steal elections; however, the people showed very little desire to rise up against him, and the opposition remained impotent due to petty squabbling within their ranks. With the power of the rural constituency and his thugs in the military, Mugabe clung to power even as Zimbabwe was economically destroyed, and suffering swept across the nation.

Now, the opposition MDC party led by Morgan Tsvangirari has finally been able to put together a movement to evict Mr. Mugabe from his throne in Harare.  Though still divided by infighting, the MDC patched together enough support to make Saturday’s elections a forceful mandate for change.  The statement was so loud, in fact, that Mugabe could only stuff the ballot boxes enough to give him about 40-41% of the vote.  I have no doubt that his totals were much lower (initial returns showed Tsvangirari with over 60% and 8-10% for the other independent candidate).  And now it’s time for Mugabe to quit stalling and move on, as The Australian notes.

NOW that the people of Zimbabwe have spoken, the international community, in particular South Africa, should apply as much moral and economic pressure as possible to lever the evil madman Robert Mugabe out of power. Given the rebuilding task that awaits, virtually from ground zero, he should be made to go as soon as possible.

After 28 years of rule, Robert Mugabe needs to stop looking for ways to invalidate the results or squash the people as he did in 2002.  Failure to step aside may result in violence like we saw in Kenya.  Even attempting to claim that he qualifies for a run-off election with the MDC will only create a 3 week delay.  During that time, the temperature will rise, and violence will only become more of a possibility.

It’s time for Mugabe to go.  Even if MDC has to allow him to go quietly with immunity for past crimes, it would surely be better than allowing him to stay on or create chaos with his indecision.  Good luck to the people of Zimbabwe.  It will take a lot of work to rebuild this proud nation.

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Free Tibet

Mar 22, 08 2:24 PM

For those of you who don’t know – I am an avid human rights guy.  And this BS in Tibet is pissing me off.  Chinese claims to Tibet are non-existent.  Tibet was an independent region for centuries.  Mao’s seizure of this proud nation and the subsequent planned infiltration of the region by Han Chinese is reprehensible.

Now we have the protests.

China’s repression of Tibetans is yet another reminder of the fact that the Chinese government is a brutal bunch of thugs.  Why the hell GW would even show up at the Olympic ceremonies is beyond me.  W has championed human rights and has made good on the rhetoric for the most part.  But it is unconscionable for the President to do anything that would act as an endorsement of this disgusting regime.

The IOC was wrong to award the Olympics to Beijing in the first place.  Why reward despots?  I personally feel that a boycott of the Olympics by the US is warranted; however, I know that won’t happen.  We continue to kowtow to China under the auspice of “engagement.”  When will we recognize this dictatorship for what it really is, and stand with the oppressed masses against this abomination?

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They Hear What We Say

Mar 7, 08 5:07 PM

Don’t the Democrats understand?  When they run around bashing the United States in order to secure a path for their own elections or reelections, they do so at a risk.  Take these comments from Libyan President, Muammar Qadaffi (at least that’s how it is spelled this month).  These are excerpts from his speech.

“I’ve seen that in America, a candidate who wants people to vote for him keeps talking about change,” Qaddafi said earlier this week in a televised address on Libyan TV, an obvious reference to Barack Obama.

“They all keep saying ‘change, change,’ ” he continued, adding Hillary Clinton to his reference. “They want to change America and its current political system. They want to make a change in their lives. They say their system is a failure, that their government is a failure, and that their elections are a failure.”

Failure?  The comments made by the Dems are being interpreted by this fourth-rate dictator as admissions of the failure of the American way!  Don’t think he’s the only one who thinks this way.  Qadaffi isn’t even the most extreme of the Middle East thugs.

I wonder when American voters will wake up and realize that the way to make this nation better is not to tear it down.  While Democrats blame Bush for our bad image overseas, maybe they ought to look at their own rhetoric.  They are the ones making the United States look weak and/or imperialistic.  Rather than standing up for this nation and against tyranny, the libs are portraying us as being more evil than that evil which we must fight against around the globe.

This was just a perfect illustration and more food for thought.

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