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La Paz.- The entry into Bolivia of a dozen military flights from Venezuela and the presumed presence of soldiers from that country unleashed a virtual "media war'' between the government and the main opposition group. In a paid announcement, the Ministry of Defense characterized as "irresponsible'' and "absurd'' the public accusation by Democratic Social Power (Podemos), the main opposition group, that the previous evening had published another paid announcement entitled: "Chavez’ troops over-run Bolivia''. In its ad, Podemos accused that "a large number of military flights from Venezuela are landing at night and early morning '' at the main airports...

Americans are suffering a new psychological disorder: news-induced political numbness. It's not the return of Jimmy Carter's "malaise." Despite the steady stream of Congressional absurdities and conservatives' growing impatience with the president, we're doing pretty well for a nation at war. But the incessant 24/7 television-newspaper-Internet barrage has caused people to tune the world out instead of reserving energy to think about the events that must be the focus of our attention. All of us, especially the White House, desperately want a break to rest and recuperate. But that's not an option. Times are tough, and we just have to...

Morales and Chávez rebuked at EU summit Friday May 12, 2006The Guardian (UK) EU leaders today rounded on Bolivia and Venezuela for challenging free market policies at a summit of European and Latin American leaders in Vienna. Wolfgang Schuessel, the Austrian chancellor and the event's host, told the two countries open markets were key to promoting economic growth and prosperity. "There are always two possibilities in life. Either you want to open your markets or you don't want to open your markets - it's your choice," he said. "But the reality is ... open market societies are better in their...

Bolivian, Venezuelan presidents grab summit headlines May 12, 2006, 14:54 GMT Vienna - Leaders from the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean summit were meeting in Vienna Friday with the gathering threatening to be hijacked by the leftist populist presidents of Bolivia and Venezuela. Speaking to reporters as leaders attending the two-day summit entered a round of key talks, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan joined government chiefs attending the meeting in sharply criticizing Bolivian President Evo Morales and his Venezuelan ally, Hugo Chavez. 'Populism is one the obstacles to development (of Latin America and the Caribbean),' Mexican President Vicente...

LONDON (Reuters) - Bolivia's decision to nationalize its gas fields weighed on shares in companies active in the country on Tuesday, but analysts said the long-term impact on foreign firms would be small. President Evo Morales said on Monday he had ordered the military to occupy Bolivia's natural gas fields and threatened to expel foreign firms that do not recognize state control. Spain's Repsol YPF (REP.MC: Quote, Profile, Research), the most exposed of the Western oil majors to Bolivia, opened down 3 percent, while British gas firm BG Group Plc (BG.L: Quote, Profile, Research), which has large reserves in Bolivia,...

President Evo Morales nationalized Bolivia's natural gas industry and oil Monday, ordering foreign energy companies to send their supplies to a state company for sales and industrialization. Speaking at the San Alberto gas and oil field in the south of the country, Morales warned that companies that reject the decree will have to leave Bolivia within six months. The main oil companies operating in Bolivia are Brazil's Petrobras, the Spanish-Argentine company Repsol YPF, British companies British Gas and British Petroleum and Total of France. "The time has come, the awaited day, a historic day in which Bolivia retakes absolute control...

The election of Evo Morales as president of Bolivia in December prompted a rash of headlines declaring that Latin America has tilted to the left. Latin Americans are fed up, some say, with the "Washington Consensus" of free markets and fiscal discipline, which has failed to erase all their poverty and inequality, and as a result their governments are reverting to protectionism, state ownership of industries and unlimited social spending. But judging from the victory of my social-democratic National Liberation Party in Costa Rica's Feb. 5 elections, our country didn't get the message that all of Latin America is veering...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who plans to attend the inauguration of a socialist in Chile this weekend, says the United States has no quarrel with leftist leaders in Latin America as long as they govern well. "This is a wonderful moment, the inauguration of the Chilean president, a woman president," Rice told a group of Latin American, Asian and Australian reporters Thursday, a day before she began a trip to those places. She was far less enthusiastic about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who frequently calls President Bush a terrorist. But she said the United States wants good relations with...

Note: for those who haven't followed the story, this is the federal district judge in California who has ruled that lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment because the murdering scumbag might suffer. Michael Morales had breakfast this morning. He will have lunch. He will have dinner. He will continue to breathe. Terri hasn't been able to do any of those things for over two decades. ========================================================================== Fogel, Jeremy D. Born 1949 in San Francisco, CA Federal Judicial Service:U. S. District Court, Northern District of CaliforniaNominated by William J. Clinton on September 8, 1997, to a seat vacated by Robert...

San Francisco - The execution of a man convicted of raping and murdering a 17-year-old girl was postponed Tuesday after two anaesthesiologists who were to ensure a painless death withdrew on ethical grounds. The execution of Michael Morales, 46, had been scheduled for 12.01 a.m. Tuesday after Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. courts denied his final appeals. But the two anaesthesiologists cited concerns over a last-minute ruling by a judge who ordered them to intervene in the event that Morales woke up or appeared to be in pain from the administering of the lethal combination of drugs. "Any such intervention...

SAN QUENTIN, California (Reuters) - The execution of a California man who raped and murdered an 17-year-old girl was delayed for at least 15 hours early on Tuesday because two court-appointed anesthesiologists walked off the job over ethical concerns. The doctors backed out when the language in an early-morning U.S. District Court ruling did not sufficiently allay their ethical concerns, San Quentin State prison spokesman Lt. Vernell Crittendon said. They were on hand after a court said the state must ensure the condemned man, Michael Morales, was in fact unconscious before a lethal injection was administered, thereby minimizing the pain...

A Bolivian history professor hired last year by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln can’t start his job because U.S. immigration officials have blocked the visa process for the past eight months. Waskar Ali The unexplained delay baffles history colleagues, frustrates UNL’s immigration expert and angers opponents of the U.S. Patriot Act, who see the case of Waskar Ari as more evidence that it’s used arbitrarily to punish those with no connection to terrorism.

San Francisco -- A California condemned prisoner who murdered, raped and tortured a girl 25 years ago moved a step closer to death when a federal appeals court dismissed on Sunday petitions seeking to block Tuesday's lethal injection. Barring a reprieve by the U.S. Supreme Court, where the case is to be appealed, Michael Morales, 46, is to become the 14th prisoner California has executed since voters reinstated capital punishment in 1978. It would be the third execution at San Quentin State Prison, located a few miles north of here, since the Dec. 13 injection of Crips co-founder Stanley Tookie...

Morales running out of options as Tuesday's execution nears. Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency for condemned inmate Michael Morales on Friday, arguing that Morales' remorse over the rape and murder he committed in 1981 does not outweigh the brutality of his crimes. Morales' lawyers filed two further legal appeals Friday, but Schwarzenegger's decision was a major blow to their effort to prevent Morales' scheduled execution next week. He is set to die at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday for the rape and murder of 17-year-old Terri Winchell of Lodi (San Joaquin County). In summing up his decision to deny clemency,...

A federal judge Thursday accepted California's revised plans for executing Michael Angelo Morales, putting the execution back on track for 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. After demanding a series of documents throughout the day, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose said he was satisfied that the state had taken "appropriate steps to ensure that (Morales) will not be subjected to a risk of unnecessary pain when he is executed." Fogel ruled earlier that the execution might have to be postponed to find out whether the state's lethal injection protocol would put Morales at risk of "excruciating pain," in violation of...

Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, seemed an unlikely ally at first glance for a Stockton murderer-rapist facing execution Tuesday. Michael Morales' lawyers rejoiced in their recruitment last month of the prominent Republican attorney, who had just won clemency for a condemned Virginia inmate, to make the case to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to spare their client's life. At the very least, Starr's involvement was guaranteed to draw attention to the case. Instead, much of the attention has been drawn to Starr, and what he knew about a bizarre sequence of events in which documents...

San Francisco -- A condemned prisoner scheduled for execution by injection on Tuesday lost another legal round to stay alive when the California Supreme Court dismissed one of his two remaining legal challenges Wednesday. Without elaboration, the justices said in a five-sentence order that Michael Morales' case lacked merit. . . .

San Francisco -- A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the state must change its lethal injection method in the execution of Michael Morales next week because the current mix of drugs may constitute cruel and unusual punishment. U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose declined to immediately postpone the execution next Tuesday of Morales, but he ordered the state to either have an expert present to ensure he's unconscious from a sedative or replace a three-drug death potion with a lethal dose of barbiturate. Fogel said he was concerned inmates are conscious and undergoing extreme pain once a paralyzing...

IT NOW appears that defense attorneys for Michael Morales, who is scheduled to be executed Feb. 21 for the 1981 rape and murder of 17-year-old Terri Winchell, submitted phony affidavits in their attempt to win clemency or otherwise prevent the execution. One of those attorneys is Ken Starr, who worked so hard investigating allegations that President Clinton committed perjury. Now Starr has fallen so low as to present documents that, according to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office, were "false and forged." Will there be any consequences? There should be. Last week, as The Chronicle reported, Starr and longtime Morales...

San Francisco -- Former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr and a Los Angeles attorney said Monday they would withdraw unreliable affidavits from jurors submitted to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as part of a bid to spare a murderer and rapist from execution. The documents supporting clemency for Michael Morales purportedly made by six trial jurors were denounced by prosecutors Friday as forgeries, but the defense team stood by them until Monday when they said they would withdraw five of the six. In a letter to Attorney General Bill Lockyer, attorney David Senior said he and Starr were "withdrawing any and all...