Friday, March 18, 2011

What’s a little hostage-taking between friends?


Today the House of Representatives voted 231 to 91 against ending the war in Afghanistan and 228 to 192 to end funding for National Public Radio. Okay then.



Obama actually called South African President Jacob Zuma to ask him to prohibit Jean-Bertrand Aristide returning to Haiti. Obama also imparted “his belief that the Haitian people deserve the chance to choose their government in a peaceful, free and fair election scheduled for Sunday.” Yeah, his support for freely elected Haitian presidents is just so very strong. (Also, the first round of voting way back in November was so fraudulent and so violent – and Aristide’s party was simply barred from the ballot – that the chance for the Haitian people to choose their government in a peaceful, free and fair election has already been lost.)

At any rate, Zuma chose not to place under house arrest, and SA Cabinet Minister Collins Chabane said, “we can’t hold [Aristide] hostage if he wants to go.”

The Haitian government has refused Aristide’s request for police protection. But Aristide will be traveling with Danny Glover, who used to work with Mel Gibson, so if there’s an attack by hordes of Haiti’s indigenous mindless, brain-eating zombie population, he’s had experience.

By the way, in my post Monday about a State Dept statement on Aristide, I failed to notice the line, “Mr. Aristide has chosen to remain outside of Haiti for seven years,” intended to imply that there is something sinister about his decision to return now, while pretending that there was something voluntary about Aristide’s exile and ignoring the US’s role in it.



Irish prime minister Enda Kenny gave Obama a bowl of weeds for St Patrick’s Day. CAPTION CONTEST:



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