Free Republic

This e-wire / report ultimately makes two points: 1. The voting process at the Iowa Straw Poll was a fraud, wrapped in lies. (Whenever those running any kind of an election use police power to hide all the ballots from the people, and then announce results (?) when supposedly (?) only they have seen the ballots – those people are frauds, are acting like Stalin-esque tyrants, and their organization is a fraud. That award goes in our current drama to the Iowa GOP leadership, namely Ted Sporer, Chuck Laudner, Mary Tiffany, Craig Robinson, and Chairman Ray Hoffman. What they did...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The leftist who a year ago was a hair's breadth from winning Mexico's presidency was reduced to political artifact on Sunday, drawing a fraction of his old crowds to an anniversary rally. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who insists his razor-thin defeat to Felipe Calderon in the July 2, 2006, election was rigged, has spent most of the past year crisscrossing Mexico to declare himself the "legitimate president." While Sunday's rally attracted tens of thousands of people, numbers were far fewer than the estimated 300,000 who turned out for Lopez Obrador in the run-up to the election...

One of the first things Felipe Calderon did after taking the oath of office as Mexico's president was to promise budget cuts, starting with a 10 percent reduction in his own salary and those of his Cabinet members. But that gesture won't buy peace with a leftist opposition that refuses to recognize his legitimacy. Calderon's principal opponent in last July's presidential election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has vowed to prevent the new president from governing. And so far his refusal to admit defeat in Mexico's closest-ever presidential contest has been supported by many Mexicans and lawmakers in the Democratic Revolutionary...

Mexican residents around the Bay Area watched the tense inauguration of Mexico's new President Felipe Calderon with sadness and frustration Friday, some expressing disgust that Calderon prevailed in what they called a stolen election, others dismayed by the fisticuffs and jeers as opposition lawmakers tried to impede the swearing-in ceremony. Many Mexicans who have kept an eye on the politics of their home country from here said they thought a combination of dirty campaigning and vote fraud had denied the presidency to leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who lost the election by less than 1 percent. But some said...

Latin America: Ahead of what should be a majestic presidential inauguration, Mexico's losing leftists are turning Mexico's Congress into a fighting ring before the world. That shows how unfit they are for democracy. In case you haven't heard, these leftists still haven't accepted the July 2 verdict of Mexico's voters, who chose Felipe Calderon to represent them as their president. Instead, they've protested and camped out in central Mexico City, falsely crying fraud. Their weeks of street blockades deprived thousands of poor Mexicans of the right to go to work. They also blocked critical trade routes into Texas in a...

MEXICO CITY - Felipe Calderon took the oath of office as Mexico's president Friday amid jeers and whistles, in a lightning-fast ceremony before congress that was preceded by a brawl between lawmakers divided over the tight presidential election. Calderon entered through a back door and appeared suddenly on the speaker's platform, which was the site of three days of fistfights and sit-ins by lawmakers seeking to control the stage. Physically protected by dozens of lawmakers and flanked by outgoing President Vicente Fox, Calderon swore to uphold the constitution in comments almost inaudible over the noise. Congress' leader ordered the national...

Suppose that Al Gore had rejected the Supreme Court's ruling, called on Democrats to occupy the Washington Mall for six weeks, and had himself sworn in on January 1, 2001, pledging to run an alternative government and "at all costs" to stop George W. Bush from taking office on the appointed day, January 20. The fact that none of this came to pass attests to the strength of American institutions and to the integrity of our political leadership. Change the names, dates, and places, however, and we have what's now happening in Mexico. Presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador lost...

U.S. Sen. Biden focuses on Mexico during talk U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wants to get tough with Mexico, a country he called an “erstwhile democracy” with a “corrupt system” that can be blamed for illegal immigration and drug problems in the U.S. Biden, D-Del., was in Columbia on Monday in his first post-election trip to this first-in-the-South presidential primary state as he continues to line up support for his presidential bid. During a question-and-answer session before a group of more than 230 Columbia Rotary Club members, Biden was asked about immigration...

MEXICO CITY - Supporters of defeated presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador named him leader of a ‘‘parallel government" Saturday during a mass meeting in the same square where President Vicente Fox celebrated Independence Day hours earlier with a giant military parade. Lopez Obrador’s supporters, who insist fraud denied the leftist the July 2 election, derided Fox as a ‘‘crook" during the parade. Fox and President-elect Felipe Calderon are both from the conservative National Action Party. After the parade passed, Lopez Obrador supporters moved back into the capital’s enormous main square, Zocalo. They set up temporary meeting places for the...

Convention Names AMLO "Legitimate President" After voting on this convention's proposals, the delegates agreed that they will not recognize Felipe Calderon as President-Elect nor the government which he heads 6:27 p.m. The resolutions of the Democratic National Convention designated Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as "Legitimate President." After voting on this convention's proposals, the delegates agreed that they will not recognize Felipe Calderon as President Elect nor the government which he heads. In the midst of shouts of acceptance, the sympathizers await the arrival of Lopez Obrador, as reported [on the radio program] Formato 21. More information shortly

MEXICO CITY - Supporters of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday ended the street protest that clogged the heart of the capital for nearly seven weeks, but they vowed to find other ways to resist the incoming conservative president. The announcement of the end of the protest camps came a day after President Vicente Fox decided to move Friday night's annual independence celebration away from the main square to avoid the protesters. The president moved the ceremony to the city of Dolores Hidalgo, 170 miles away. Mexican media quoted Interior Secretary Carlos Abascal as saying the feuding parties had...

Mexico faces a plunge into political chaos after a senior aide to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that the Left-wing former mayor of Mexico City will set up a "resistance government" and declare himself president, despite being declared the loser of July's election. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Mr Lopez Obrador's campaign refuses to acknowledge defeat, and has set up sprawling protest camps in Mexico City's main square "Even though the official institutions, like a spent force, have recognised the Right-wing candidate, we are not going to," Gerardo Fernandez Norona, a senior strategist in Mr Lopez Obrador's campaign, told The Sunday...

Last updated 1:33 p.m. PT ASSOCIATED PRESS MEXICO CITY -- Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has given up efforts to have himself declared winner of Mexico's presidential race, but he still plans a parallel government to cater to the poor and keep alive his fight against the president-elect, a party spokesman said Friday. Since Mexico's top electoral court rejected Lopez Obrador's allegations of widespread fraud in the July 2 vote, he has focused on a Sept. 16 convention where supporters will declare him leader of a resistance government. The plan is to block President-elect Felipe Calderon at every step, including his...

“TO HELL with the institutions,” says Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the loser of Mexico's presidential race. Ever since July 2nd's elections, Mexico City's former left-wing mayor has bitterly contested the count that gave a wafer-thin victory to Felipe Calderón, candidate of President Vicente Fox's centre-right National Action Party (PAN). But on September 5th that result was unanimously confirmed by the federal electoral tribunal, the final arbiter of such matters. After a partial recount of votes ordered by the tribunal in response to legal challenges from several political parties, its seven independent judges announced that Mr Calderón had received 233,831 more...

The 10 Points of AMLO's Message Redaction EL UNIVERSAL.com.mx El Universal Mexico City Wednesday 6 September 2006 After the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TEPJF) gave its qualification of the presidential election and declared Felipe Calderon President-Elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in his informative session [said the following]: 1. He accused the magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation of submission, "they did not have the courage, the dignity, the pride, the arrogance to act as free men," in ratifying the triumph of the PAN candidate. 2. He stated that he...

MEXICO CITY -- Newly declared President-elect Felipe Calderon began building his government Wednesday and his supporters called on backers of leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to end weeks of national protests over the disputed July 2 election. Calderon held a series of private meetings early Wednesday and was scheduled to meet with President Vicente Fox later in the day to discuss the transition to his new government and next year's budget, said Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar. Aguilar said President Bush called Fox early Wednesday to congratulate him on the end of a lengthy electoral process and the "strength of Mexico's...

MEXICO CITY, -- Defeated leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rejected a court decision awarding Mexico's presidency to Felipe Calderon, insisting he will never recognize his rival's legitimacy and vowing to create a parallel government from the streets. Calderon celebrated his long-delayed victory by reaching out to the millions of Mexicans who did not vote for him and calling on his main adversaries, including Lopez Obrador, to help heal the nation's divisions. Lopez Obrador's supporters threw trash at the headquarters of Mexico's Federal Electoral Tribunal, whose seven magistrates voted unanimously Tuesday to declare Calderon president-elect. The decision rejected Lopez Obrador's...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Conservative ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon won Mexico's ferociously contested July 2 election and is president-elect, the top electoral court said in a draft ruling on Tuesday. Earlier on Tuesday, the court said Calderon had won with a margin of about 234,000 votes. In this latest draft ruling, the court said he could now be declared president-elect, the first time the election body has made this announcement. The final, official decision is still to be voted on later in the day by a panel of seven judges, who have already thrown out leftist candidate Andres Manuel...

(9/05/06 - MEXICO CITY, Mexico) - The president of Mexico's top electoral court recommended Tuesday that the full tribunal uphold the slim lead of ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon. The recommendation must still be approved, but Leonel Castillo suggested that the seven magistrates certify a final vote count showing Calderon with a 233,831-vote lead out of 41.6 million cast. That would trim Calderon's earlier lead of 240,000. Such a decision has been widely expected, and the leftist rival candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador already has vowed to ignore the ruling, which comes after weeks of legal challenges and protests and...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's leftist opposition leader said on Sunday he will never recognize his right-wing rival as president and vowed a "radical transformation" of the country by setting up a parallel government. Mexico's electoral court is almost certain to confirm the ruling party's Felipe Calderon as president-elect this week, but Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador insists he was robbed in the July 2 election. "We will never accept usurpation nor recognize a president-elect who is illegitimate," the former mayor of Mexico City told a rally of thousands of supporters in the capital's main square.