Pelosi In Bed With FARC

There has been much in the news lately about the terrorist group in Colombia known as FARC. Recently, there was a highly successful mission to rescue 15 hostages held by FARC, including three Americans and former Colombia presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt.

Well, now news is coming out that in addition to some Democrat members of congress who had ties to FARC, the Queen Bee herself, Nancy Pelosi, may have been calling the shots.

Gateway Pundit has been all over this from day one, so go visit and get caught up on the latest. If true, she should be facing federal prosecution.

Humiliated FARC Looks to Open 'Peace Talks'

President Uribe needs to continue the pressure and put his foot on the throat of these leftist goons once and for all. Is it any wonder after Wednesday's raid, when they were embarrassed for all to see, that they'd now come crawling and looking for "peace"?

A NEWS outlet close to Colombia's leftist FARC guerrillas left open the possibility that the group would be open to peace talks with the government of President Alvaro Uribe.

It is the first reaction from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas since Colombian soldiers rescued Franco-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, three Americans and 11 other hostages they were holding in a daring operation on Wednesday.

"Definitely the future of Colombia cannot be civil war," read the statement on the pro-rebel Anncol news agency website.

"We call for common sense and to make room for peace."

Funny how these leftist scum around the world all mouth the same talking points about "common sense" and "peace" when those are the last things you'll ever find coming from them.

Nice seeing another piece of garbage looking stupid now.

Question the Timing: McCain Had Advance Knowledge of Colombian Hostage Rescue

It's McCain's July surprise. By the end of the weekend, the nutroots will have this a full-blown conspiracy.

Mr. McCain said that he and his traveling companions -- Senators Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, and Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut – had been informed by Mr. Uribe on Tuesday evening in Cartagena that the Colombian government planned to try on Wednesday to rescue a number of hostages, including the Americans, Thomas Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell. All three were military contractors who were abducted in 2003 in Colombia when their plane went down.

The talks about the planned rescue, which Mr. Lieberman described as detailed, delayed the start of a news conference on Tuesday that Mr. McCain held with Mr. Uribe outside the presidential retreat in Cartagena. In the news conference, Mr. McCain gave no hint of what he had just learned, although he mentioned the American hostages and praised Mr. Uribe’s efforts to battle FARC.

The fact Joe Lieberman is along for the ride will no doubt send the Kos Kidz over the edge.

Update: Well, that didn't take long. Figures it was an MSNBC moron. Behold the breathless stupidity.

Hollywood Lifestyle Poses Serious Risk to Rainforest

If I wrote the headlines, that's what it would say, but instead the BBC decided to word it this way.

Cocaine use 'destroys rainforest'

Some 2.2 million hectares of rainforest had been lost to cocaine production over the last 20 years, he added.

So we can't drill in ANWR because of danger to the environment, polar bear populations are at an all-time high so let's put them on the endangered species list, and whatever Al Gore is blaming this week on global warming climate change is fine rhetoric to spout, but if we point a finger at all those crazy whacked-out folks in the entertainment business who shove more then their fair share of blow up the nose, why we are [insert your favorite label here].

By the way, notice once again that this is Colombia that is taking the initiative, Nancy.

Mr James, a former cocaine user who recently presented a BBC Panorama documentary on the effects of the drug, backed the environmental focus of the campaign.

He said: "I don't know why we care more about monkeys dying than people dying but we do. So this is a really intelligent way of going about it."

See how your thinking clears up when you're not doing drugs?

Reason Number 135,753 for Voting All the Bums Out of Congress

Of course this involves our friends from the Democrat Party. I have never seen a political party that has so many open ties to enemies of this country, and in fact, as evidence has shown, are actually actively working with our enemies. Enemies who wish to see you dead. The citizens of this country need to wake up and realize that the "real and present danger" to our fundamental rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is being sold out from under us.

Instead of merely dismissing this as another case of business as usual from those folks in Washington, let's bring it down to the local level.

You have a neighbor who is talking to a violent street gang and has offered to them a safe place to hide out in, but he has told them there is a slight problem with a neighbor, meaning you, that they might have to take care of. The gang, in exchange for safe haven offered by your neighbor begins to work on you. First they try talking tough, but when you either ignore them or take a stand they realize they will have to move on to the next step. So they torch your car, vandalize your home, and leave a final warning on your door written in the blood of your dog.

I don't think you would take it for one minute and no doubt you would be contacting the police or even taking things into your own hands.

Who do you call when it is your Congress critter that is the enabler? And the threat is just that real.

The Republicans by standing by and allowing their partners in crime to get by with this sort of activity makes them just as culpable.

Hat tip to Gateway Pundit for the story.

Leader of Colombian drug cartel in America

Just not the way he wanted to come here.

Colombia extradited one of the country's most feared paramilitary warlords to the United States early Wednesday to face drug trafficking charges, the government said.

Carlos Mario Jimenez was flown to Washington, D.C., via Miami on a Drug Enforcement Administration plane, according to President Alvaro Uribe's office. The announcement came just hours after Colombia's top judicial panel overturned a Supreme Court decision that had temporarily blocked the extradition.

Unlike Mexico who sends representatives of their drug cartels to university here in this country Columbia continues to arrest and prosecute the home grown terrorists and drug warlords they have.
The Democratic led congress has been shameful in the handling of the free trade agreement with Columbia and I wouldn't have blamed them if they didn't extradite this guy. The bad news is that now that he is here the ACLU and every liberal leaning lawyer in America will be lining up to defend this guy and if we are lucky he will probably wind up picking up garbage along a highway for 100 hours.
Well Nancy, the balls in your court. Your main reason for denying the free trade agreement was because you said the Columbian government wasn't doing enough to fight terrorists and the drug cartels.

Druglord Slain, Evil Twin Survives

We finally have a real-life case of the dreaded evil twin.

A COLOMBIAN drug lord gunned down in a shootout with police this week was in fact the man's twin brother, officials say.

The dead man was also one of the country's most wanted cocaine traffickers.

Authorities on Tuesday said Miguel Angel Mejia was killed at a farm in northern Colombia but on Wednesday officials said fingerprints showed the slain man was Victor Manuel Mejia, also wanted for extradition to the United States on drug charges.

"At the moment he was shot by the police, Victor Mejia was carrying documents of his twin brother," the police said in a statement. "This was a strategy they often used to confuse even the members of their own security teams."

The brothers had been members of a paramilitary group that disbanded under a peace deal with President Alvaro Uribe. The Mejia twins refused to surrender to serve prison terms under the agreement and continued drug trafficking, officials say.

Washington offering a $5 million reward for their capture.

Is Nancy Pelosi actively assisting the enemies of America?

After reading these stories at Atlas and over at Gateway Pundit it sure seems so. Now I don't have any high profile secret sources or contacts with anybody inside the Beltway or even an inside track to the guy who screens the letters to the editors at our local newspaper, so I can't really add anything to the story. All I can do it point it out and direct you to go read the information. I don't ascribe to black helicopter conspiracy theories or Big Brother monitoring my every move, but the circumstantial evidence presented sure doesn't paint a very good picture of Madame Pelosi and her Democratic allies in congress.
When I wrote about Nancy's maneuvering and changing the House rules to prevent the vote on the Colombian Free Trade agreement I said at the time that Chavez would benefit the most from this move and that this was something we would have expected from Chavez but not the United States House of Representatives and apparently the South American press think the same.
So at a time when our congress critters are investigating everything from steroids in baseball to videotaping football games I wonder what the chances would be of anybody even bothering to question the speaker publicly on the floor of the house? Not much since politicians of all stripes when it comes down to it cover each others backsides better then Cling Wrap on a grapefruit.
Go read for yourself and see if you don't at least feel a slight tremble that somebody this high up in our government could be willing to put you and your loved ones on a target list just to score political points

Every Whore Has a Price

In this instance, the price is a bit steep, but since this political prostitute and his wife have no shame and are laughing all the way to the bank, do you think they'll show the slightest bit of shame?

Yeah, right.

Bill Clinton voiced "support" for a controversial Colombia free-trade pact that his wife has fiercely opposed - and he accepted $800,000 in speaking fees from a group boosting the agreement, it was revealed yesterday.

The news came just two days after Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton pushed her chief strategist, Mark Penn, from his post after he embarrassed the campaign by consulting with Colombia government officials over the trade deal.

In June 2005, Bill Clinton, who holds enormous sway as an adviser to his wife, was quoted by the Spanish-language news portal Terra as publicly backing the trade pact at an appearance with Colombia President Alvaro Uribe.

"I will raise your point when you return to the United States," Clinton said, according to a trans lation by Politico.com. "I am in favor of the free-trade agreement and it is my hope that we will find the right formula to reach the agreement."

The same month, Bill Clinton reaped the six-figure windfall from the Colombia-based development group Gold Service International - a booster of the trade agreement - for four speeches.

At least they still care about the children.

Why Look Who's Funding FARC

To the tune of $300 million, reportedly.

Colombia's police commander said on Monday documents found at the camp of a top rebel commander killed in a raid showed evidence Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had made $300 million payments to FARC guerrillas.

Gen. Oscar Naranjo earlier said computers found in the camp of FARC commander Raul Reyes had revealed documents showing ties between the rebel leader and a representative of the government of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa.

No wonder this pig is threatening war with Colombia.

He's got a huge investment at stake.

Journalist Sean Penn was unavailable for comment.

Thanks to Gateway Pundit for the link!

Chavez a 'Major Facilitator' of Cocaine Trade, Admits Chewing Coca Leaves

Absolutely shocking, isn't it, that this thug might actually be involved in drug running?

A top US anti-drugs official has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of being a "major facilitator" of the trade in cocaine.

The official, John Walters, said Venezuela had become "a haven" for shipments of cocaine manufactured in neighbouring Colombia.

Venezuela rejects the charges, saying it is the victim of traffickers.

But Mr Walters, speaking on a visit to Colombia, said failure to deal with the problem amounted to complicity.

Mr Walters, director of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), was meeting Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

US officials say about one third of Colombia's output of 600 tonnes of cocaine a year now passes through Venezuela, most of it going to America and Europe.

'Colluding'

Mr Walters said Mr Chavez had failed to root out corrupt officials or to deny Venezuelan ports and airfields to smugglers.

Such failure, he said, came from more than neglect.

"It goes beyond 'I can't do it' to 'I won't do it'. And 'I won't do it' means that 'I am colluding'," Mr Walters said.

"I think it is about time to face up to the fact that President Chavez is becoming a major facilitator of the transit of cocaine to Europe and other parts of this hemisphere."

Even the Washington Post recently noted how cozy a relationship Chavez has with Colombian drug traffickers.

Meanwhile, it's gone virtually unnoticed that Chavez has admitted chewing coca leaves on a daily basis.

Now wonder he's so popular with the Hollywood elite.

Venezuela's controversial President Hugo Chávez has revealed that he regularly consumes coca -- the source of cocaine -- raising questions about the legality of his actions.

Chávez's comments on coca initially went almost unnoticed, coming amid a four-hour speech to the National Assembly during which he made international headlines by calling on other countries to stop branding two leftist Colombian guerrilla groups as terrorists and instead recognize them as ``armies.''

''I chew coca every day in the morning . . . and look how I am,'' he is seen saying on a video of the speech, as he shows his biceps to the audience.

Chávez, who does not drink alcohol, added that just as Fidel Castro ''sends me Coppelia ice cream and a lot of other things that regularly reach me from Havana,'' Bolivian President Evo Morales ``sends me coca paste . . . I recommend it to you.''

It was not clear what Chávez meant. Indigenous Bolivians and Peruvians can legally chew coca leaves as a mild stimulant and to kill hunger. But coca paste is a semi-refined product -- between leaves and cocaine -- considered highly addictive and often smoked as basuco or pitillo.

''It is another symptom that [Chávez] has totally lost the concept of limits,'' said Aníbal Romero, a political scientist with the Caracas Metropolitan University. ``It shows Chávez is a man out of control.''

More seriously, Venezuelan and Bolivian analysts said Chávez's comments amount to a dangerous endorsement of a substance controlled around the world, and perhaps even an illegal act by a very public head of state.

''If he is affirming that he consumes coca paste, he is admitting that he is consuming a substance that is illegal in Bolivia as well as Venezuela,'' said Hernán Maldonado, a Bolivian analyst living in Miami. ''Plus, it's an accusation that Evo Morales is a narco-trafficker'' for sending him the paste.

Sean Penn, Kevin Spacey and Naomi Campbell were unavailable for comment

Better Yet, Call Them Activists

You can't make this stuff up.

Here we have Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez calling on world governments to refer to terrorist groups as insurgents and by the fourth paragraph of the story, Reuters indeed refers to them as insurgents.

Why not just call them activists?

Colombia rebels not terrorists - Venezuela's Chavez

Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez on Friday urged world governments to label Colombia's cocaine-funded Marxist guerrillas insurgents instead of terrorists, a day after rebels freed two women hostages.

Colombia's interior minister immediately denounced the call to meet a major rebel demand as "completely off-the-wall."

Chavez, who brokered the rare hostage release, said the rebel fighters, the FARC and ELN, "are not terrorist groups, they are armies, real armies that occupy space in Colombia."

Colombia's conservative President Alvaro Uribe later issued a statement saying the insurgents are indeed terrorists who fund their operations with cocaine smuggling, recruit children and plant land mines in their effort to topple a democratically elected government.

The FARC and ELN use kidnapping as a weapon in their decades-long war on the state. Along with right-wing paramilitary, they are self-financed through involvement in the Andean nation's multibillion-dollar narcotics trade.

"I ask you (Uribe) that we start recognizing the FARC and the ELN as insurgent forces in Colombia and not terrorist groups, and I ask the same of the governments of this continent and the world," Chavez said in his annual state of the nation speech.

Led by the United States, which funds Uribe's counterinsurgency war and has military advisers in the country, many allies of Colombia consider both groups terrorists.

"Colombia's violent groups are terrorists because the only thing they have produced is displacement, pain, unemployment and poverty," Uribe's statement said.

On Thursday, Chavez was showered with praise by governments from Argentina to France after the FARC set free Consuelo Gonzalez and Clara Rojas, politicians they had held for years in secret jungle camps.

Uribe and Chavez have bickered for months over the leftist's role in mediating a swap of hostages for guerrillas imprisoned by the government.

Chavez is determined to help free more of the dozens of politicians, soldiers and police the FARC hold, and has offered to open a "peace camp" in Venezuela.

Surely "Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan will be in attendance.

Chavez in Rift With Colombia

The gift that keeps on giving, Hugo Chavez, is now freaking out on the President of Colombia.

Chavez freezes ties with Colombia

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he has frozen his country's bilateral ties with neighbouring Colombia.

The move follows the decision by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to end Mr Chavez's role as a hostage negotiator with Colombia's Farc rebels.

Mr Chavez said that the decision to end his mediation role was "a spit in the face" and denounced Mr Uribe as a liar."

This comes shortly after the King of Spain gave Chavez a public smackdown.

In announcing the "freeze" in relations with Colombia, Mr Chavez compared the situation to his recent diplomatic row with Spain, which was triggered when the Spanish King, Juan Carlos, told him to "shut up" at a summit meeting in Chile.

"It's like the case of Spain: until the king of Spain apologises, I'm freezing relations with Spain," he said.

Notice a pattern here? People around the world are figuring out that Chavez is a career squirrel.

I'm sure somehow Chavez will blame the U.S. for this.

Hollywood on Edge

Bad news for the in-crowd. Who knows, this could even have an effect on attendance at YearlyKos.

Sure signs are erratic behavior, an over-inflated sense of self-importance, and Charlie Sheen knocking on doors in his neighborhood, pleading for a fix.

Drug Officials Note Cocaine Shortage

Wholesale prices of cocaine have risen in more than a dozen major U.S. cities as supplies of the powerful drug have shrunk, including in high-volume markets such as Los Angeles and New York, White House drug czar John Walters said.

But the same federal report that Walters said indicates the short supply also suggests that producers might be stockpiling cocaine in South America or Mexico, perhaps waiting until the time is right to export to the United States.

The scarcity was first noted in a May report by the National Drug Intelligence Center, said Walters, who heads the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"We've had a number of programs and a number of efforts that have done things at a level that we haven't seen before," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The shortage is likely the result of combined enforcement and eradication efforts in the U.S., Mexico and Colombia, the world's largest producer of cocaine, said Walters, who met with intelligence officials in El Paso this week.

The shortage has been tracked largely by sharp price increases and has existed for about two to four months, according to a four-page unclassified summary of the NDIC's findings.

There is also the possibility that cocaine once bound for the U.S. has been redirected to Europe, the report shows.

Roger Clinton was unavailable for comment.

BDS, Brazilian Style

President Bush went down to Brazil today and sure enough, the usual coterie of leftwing whiners were there to greet him, mouthing the usual pap.

Police clashed Thursday with students, environmentalists and left-leaning Brazilians protesting a visit by President Bush and his push for an ethanol energy alliance with Latin America's largest nation.

Riot police fired tear gas at protesters in Sao Paulo after more than 6,000 people held a largely peaceful march, sending hundreds of demonstrators fleeing and ducking into businesses to avoid the gas.

The fun wasn't just contained to Brazil. They're already warming up in Colombia.

Clashes between police and anti-Bush protesters were also reported in Colombia, where Bush is scheduled to visit on Sunday as part of his five-nation tour to Latin America.

Bush has spoken approvingly of Brazil's ethanol program, which powers eight out of every 10 new Brazilian cars. The proposed accord is meant to help turn ethanol into an internationally traded commodity and to promote sugarcane-based ethanol production in Central America and the Caribbean.

In Sao Paulo, some carried stalks of sugarcane — used to make ethanol — and a banner reading: "For every liter of ethanol produced, 4 liters of fresh water are consumed, monoculture is destroying the nation's greatest asset."

And in the southern city of Porto Alegre, more than 500 people yelled "Get out, imperialist!" as they marched to a Citigroup Inc. bank branch and burned an effigy of Bush.

Fearing that Brazil may clear pristine jungle to increase sugarcane cultivation for ethanol, Greenpeace activists hung a huge banner warning against increased reliance on ethanol as an alternative fuel. They placed the banner on a monument to the 17th century Portuguese explorers who conquered Brazil's Indians in search of gold and gems.

"We know that Bush and the United States are known for exploiting weaker countries into deals that will only benefit themselves without worrying about the environment," said Mariana Schwarz, a 25-year-old publicist.

"Bush and the United States go to war to control oil reserves, and now Bush and his pals are trying to control the production of ethanol in Brazil. And that has to be stopped," said Suzanne Pereira dos Santos, an activist with Brazil's Landless Workers Movement.

No blood for ethanol!

Meanwhile, we also see how much good Bush's pandering to Mexico has done.

And in Mexico City, which Bush is scheduled to visit Tuesday, about two dozen demonstrators gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy chanting slogans against the U.S. project to construct border fences and Bush's visit.

"Why is he coming here? It makes no sense, it's unreasonable, after all he's done," said protest leader Roman Diaz Vazquez, a lawyer. "We don't like him. Why is he coming, after he ordered the construction of the border wall?"

Carmelo Ramriez Reyes showed up for the protest in a devil's mask, carrying a placard reading "My name is George Bush, killer of Mexicans."