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Yes; both of your points are unfortunately true. But right now our house is on fire and the arsonists will reap the benefits if we permit Melancon to win. Obama must be stopped.

I've taken a first step towards setting up the piece I want to do on the racial animosity campaign that is about to be launched against Vitter by posting a blog on the recent Southern Media and Opinion Research poll of last week which shows just how negative Melancon must become to have any chance against Vitter and why he must depend upon outside help to launch that campaign.

http://blogginglouisiana.blogspot.com/2009/10/smor-poll-and-melancon-vs-vitter-where.html

This is not the piece I will need to get circulated, but it will be a first step.

I have been away too long SAJ. I have worked at my Latin American Left watch duties aiding the Venezuelan resistance to Chavez quite a bit. I need to give everyone an update on that. I became practically a partner of Martha Colmenares, the principal resistante and even published works originally in Spanish on her site, Colombian news sites, and more. I also was published in Diario de America on the FARC narco-guerrillas. I was awarded a prize by the Cuban exile community for my work outing the Castroite repression of Cuban bloggers and more. But this fire is in my own house now, and I cannot stand aside. I must get back into Louisiana politics whole hog here. I have seen what the consequences of race baiting can be in Louisiana and, well, I think you understand. Stephen Sabludowsky is an Internet Legal Services attorney working in New Orleans who owns BayouBuzz.com, a very successful "news" web site that primarily focuses on Louisiana. He is very web savvy and achieves some of the best Google Search Engine and Google News Results anywhere. There's more, but that's the jist of it.

Please forgive me everyone for even posting an excerpt from this vicious hit piece aimed at David Vitter. But I have to do it in order to make clear to Louisiana Freepers -- and I used to have a ping list for them -- what is going on.

Simply put, the Obama Hate Machine is gearing up to launch a vicious campaign of race baiting hatred on behalf of Vitter's opponent Charles Melancon.

I have already been at work contacting other bloggers and Louisiana conservative commentators up on the web now to let them know what I am doing, and I am definitely going to get a little help from them, and it's very valuable, but this is only just now getting started and I will take my first step tomorrow when I publish an analysis of the recent SMOR poll on the race published last week, in a blog I just opened. I intend to make sure that Stephen Sabludowsky of BayouBuzz.com does not get a free ride for the venomous attack he has launched on Vitter, which you can read in the article I just linked. That poll analysis will essentially be a reference source to frame both what Sabludowsky is doing and why he is doing it.

For those who only know me as StJacques, my real name is Jacob Sulzbach, and you will be able to see in the long list of comments underneath that article that I became more than a little angry at what Sabludowsky is doing. This is just awful!

After I publish the analysis of the SMOR poll, I will then proceed to address Sabludowsky's outright deceit and purposeful venom. I have been looking into his contacts as indicated by links revealed in the Alexa.com site analysis tools, and I want everyone to know that this guy is in league with some of the worst of the leftist bloggers now up on the web. No need to go any further, if you read the article you will see what I mean.

I'm still debating the title of that upcoming article, but it will be something like "Playing the Hate Card for Charles Melancon" or "The Obama Hate Machine and Charles Melancon," or maybe even something else I have yet to conceive of at this moment. I think you get my drift though.

Can someone please start pinging the Louisiana Freepers and ask them to either Freepmail me or contact me directly via e-mail at:

jacobsulzbach@gmail.com

We must stand up to this venomous hate campaign now underway. I am going to need help circulating what follows.

The Obama Hate Machine is about punish Louisiana. We must respond.

Thank you everyone.

Latin American ping here.

I haven't been in much because I've been working on getting my blog going, which I opened April 5. It is at:

http://stjacquesonline.blogspot.com

I am posting this article exactly as it is published in the Diario de America website, even though there are three slight errors in what is published. One, my internet alias "StJacques" is misspelled "StJaques"; two, there was a problem evidently when they copied and pasted one of the paragraphs in which what was originally posted in my blog as $480,000 found in the FARC safe house in Costa Rica came out "0,000"; and three, they have omitted a translator's note I posted that identifies the 3rd to last paragraph as a quote from Simon Bolivar's famous "Decree of War to the Death" of 1813.

You go Cinnamon Girl!

Translation: I’m with you.

". . . Imagine how they'll scream at coup time in Caracas!"

There is a Venezuelan expatriate blogger named Gustavo Coronel who has been predicting in his blog, las armas de coronel (which is mostly, though not all, in Spanish), that a coup is in Chavez's future. Coronel is absolutely the hardest-hitting commentator on Chavez you will find anywhere. He is a petroleum geologist and a veteran of the oil industry in Venezuela. I wish more Americans could read what, and how, he writes. They guy is a true blogger-hero in my opinion.

". . . Idiot though he may be, Chavez has achieved a bit of a media coup and by acting on behalf of Ecuador, who after all is the only aggrieved party in the case, he has established himself, or tried to, as the heir apparent of Castro. He is seen to be leading the Marxists of Latin America in united action against US interests."

In terms of explaining Chavez's motivations for acting as he did, I am convinced you are right.

But this may be an instance of "be careful what you wish for" because you just may get it.

Chavez's actions appear to have been greeted with incredulity in Venezuela. The El Universal (Caracas) and Tal Cual (Caracas) newspapers took him to task, especially Tal Cual, which has now emerged as a true opposition voice, and the word from bloggers and newspaper sources in Colombia, Mexico, Spain, and the U.S. is that the Venezuelan army did not take Hugo very seriously in public, which suggests there must have been more to the story behind the scenes. Former Defense Minister General Raul Baduel lambasted Chavez openly in the press for "playing a dangerous game for personal political gain." In sum -- it all backfired on Chavez. His country is facing a serious problem with shortages of basic foods at supermakets and smaller grocery stores -- there have been riots; yes, riots over these shortages -- and to cut off Colombian trade, from whence they get a lot of their food, was about as smart as shooting holes in your sinking boat. Tal Cual is referring to the whole affair quite derisively as "Chacu's War" (La guerra de Chacu) in today's paper. Their editorial is a one paragraph satire that smacks of Rabelais and Garcia Marquez and finishes with the flourish of "What a great Leader!" Note: "Chacu" could be translated as "big mouth," "motor mouth," and perhaps even "trash talker."

The real genius in this whole affair was Uribe, who understood that he needed to speak directly to the Venezuelan and Ecuadoran people in friendly, courteous, even apologetic tones while simultaneously taking Chavez and Correa out to the woodshed in international affairs (remember Colombia's call for an indictment of Chavez for planning mass murder [for his aid of the FARC] before the Court of International Justice when this story broke?). Uribe made clear from the start that he wouldn't even bother sending troops to the border because he knew "the Venezuelan people are our friends." Chavez and Correa blinked, and very quickly.

Give Uribe his due. The man understands how to play the game. Chavez was taken down a notch or two in front of his own people in this affair. So what if he does have the lead role for the internationalized Latin American Left? The man is in trouble at home.

The FARC not only engage in murder, extortion, kidnapping, and, on rare occasions, armed confrontation with the Colombian army; they also export hundreds of millions of dollars of cocaine to the U.S. each year. Turning our backs on these narco-thugs will only send the signal to every other drug export gang in South America that the cocaine business will be safe.

The U.S. Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security list the FARC as the number one terrorist threat in the Western Hemisphere. There is no "keeping us out."

All I can tell you is that we WILL take a Senate seat away from the Dems this fall in Louisiana. The post-Katrina fallout, which led to the Republicans more than doubling their representation in the state House of Representatives coupled with the seizure of the Governor’s chair and much more last Fall, will continue. Mary Landrieu is going down.

I’ve put you on it Army Air Corps.

Well my first comment is that Cory Fischer-Hoffman is just shivving for Chavez. Some of those comments are really outrageous.

Take this one for instance:

" . . . This attack is the continuation and escalation of an on-going war in Colombia that has persisted for 40 years due to US military funding and training of Armed Forces in Colombia. . . ."

Really?

I thought the attack was the result of the Colombian government's desire to defeat a terrorist/kidnapping/extorting/narcotrafficking group of so-called "guerrillas" who are a genuine threat to their national security. I could also go on and on about what was left out of Cory Fischer-Hoffman's article, but I'm not going to waste my time.

Let me put up something from Martha Colmenares' web site (Wow! Does this woman ROCK!!!) on the recent murder of a group of young boys by the FARC in Colombia. I'm just translating her first paragraph.



Translation of first paragraph:

"Young boys also have been victims of the FARC terrorists, they are recruited and trained to kill, their throats are cut or they die by their bullets. When it is a case of very powerful images, it is a personal decision to look at it or not, for that reason they are compiled in this pdf, that opens when you click HERE. The original source, Secretos de Cuba, contains expansive reporting with images and reports about the crimes of this terrorist band, which can be accessed directly. These are documents which confirm acts of barbarism of these murderers who attempt to classify themselves as the "Army of the People" and they deserve to be shown. . . ."

Put that up against Cory Fischer-Hoffman's take.

I'm just soooo sick of these ignorant, uncaring, mean, deceitful leftists who keep trying to tell us that the "revolution" is for the good of humanity, we just don't see it because we're weak or god-knows-what.

The murder of young boys is murder plain and simple. Anyone who says differently can take the rest and shove it.

Everyone;

In case you're interested, you can see the list of the FARC Commandantes, most with pictures, as well as a map containing the intelligence information as to their whereabouts at:

http://www.elespectador.com/archivos/cabecillasfarc.jpg

Colombia could actually take both Venezuela and Ecuador at once.

The one thing that was left out of the above article, and thanks for posting it by the way, is that the Colombians have dispatched three guerrilla armies going back to the 1970's -- the M-19, the ELN, and the various paramilitary groups known as the MAS -- and they have a history of combatting political violence going back to the 1940's, a period known as La Violenta. They are the most experienced and successful counterinsurgency force in all of Latin America. And now they're coming close to dispatching the FARC.

One side note ... Don't rely upon the Colombian history on Wikipedia. It was written by some unknown leftist idiot who either knows nothing or does know something and spins it so wildly that it comes across as a polemic. Yecchhh!

Founding Father, if you decide to post this somewhere, paragraph 2 should read "there are no more than scrub ..."; paragraph 5 needs to have quotes closed and reopened; and the last paragraph should read "comment on Messi's bad luck." I got a little sloppy there, it's late.

Here is the translation Founding Father requested:

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Venezuela, The "Military Deployment" of Hugo Chavez at the Border 10:47 a.m. | 06 Mar 2008

"Are you going to war? Of what war are you talking to me about?," I sarcastically ask a Venezuelan emigration agent while transferring to the border post with Colombia at Paraguachón. "He is not believable, no one will fire a shot here. These are only the vanities of Presidents, we are very calm, we're all friends," the civil employee said. This is the chronicle of Joaquim Ibarz for the Vanguard of Barcelona.

The truth is that in this arid border zone, where military analysts have already foretold that there will be tens of combat vehicles deployed, there are no more scrub and ramshackle vehicles of who knows what dark origin.

Instead of soldiers the Chivos and Wayúu proliferate, indigenous ethnic groups who do not recognize borders and only admit of their own laws.

It seems an almost ridiculous situation that Venezuela mobilizes thousands of men to promise a warlike conflict that nobody either wants or supports. Here they do not sound military drums, they only hear the calls made by the border guards to the normal transit of merchandise, especially Colombian foods that are indispensable to softening the shortages. The Venezuelan military deployment in a sparsely-populated sandy region will not have to face seasoned Colombian soldiers, only an army of small smugglers of the two countries who subsist in dealing gasoline, foods and merchandise of all types.

"The enemy is not Colombia, only poverty and shortages - affirms Luisa Cortés, a seller of empanadas and arepas. Look for yourself, there is no progress here, only promises and promises that are not fulfilled. Why are they sending us more soliders?," she asks without hoping for a response.

Colombia, the most militarized country of South America, does not have even a single soldier in this Guajira border zone with the Venezuelan state of Zulia. Even though the two countries share 2,050 kilometers of border, the major part of the terrain is jungle or very mountainous. The Zulia zone is the only one apt for Venezuelan tanks to operate against a thus far nonexistent enemy. President Alvaro Uribe has not distracted even one uniformed soldier on the border from his labor of militarily defeating the FARC.

In Fort Páez, a small quarter in which we found in a corner of the great plaza of Paraguaipoa (about 15 kilometers from Colombia), soldiers and sergeant majors mount guard duty with a certain indolence.

They receive the journalist with military affability. They remark that they have no special mobilization orders, that everthing is normal. "In the capital they say a lot of things, here everything is different, the patrols we make are the regular ones," a sergeant explained without giving credibility to the alarmist news about the conflict with Colombia. "I saw in a newspaper that there will be a movement of tanks here, when in reality the photos are of the little armored cars with which we make our regular rounds," the lower-level official added.

Neighbors listen with a certain skepticism to the televised interruption of the Minister of Defense, General Gustavo Rangel, who assures everyone that this is an ending point to the military deployment ordered by Hugo Chavez. General Jesus Gonzalez, chief of operational strategy control, said at noon yesterday that they were reaching their objectives in the states of Zulia, Tachira, and Apure of almost the totality of the eight thousand men mobilized.

Although Chávez announced Sunday morning the immediate shipment to the border of ten battalions with armored cars and warplanes, the deployment did not begin to be undertaken until Tuesday night. In fact, an official of Venezuelan military intelligence said to us at dawn yesterday in Paraguaipoa: "They have not yet ordered me into any mobilization."

The official version is that in the last few hours events have accelerated. General Gustavo Rangel reiterated that the ten battalions were at the point of completing the foreseen plan. The first contingent of 150 soldiers went up to Tachira by the Santo Domingo airport. No one has said a word of the deployment of the modern Russian Sukhoi airplanes.

Accordion ballads in place of martial music

Life has not changed on the border; here no one breathes any tension. There is only the getting around the obstacles imposed on the transport of merchandise. Venezuelans and Colombians, above all the ethnic Wayuu, pass from one side to the other without perceiving they are arriving in another country. They only hear the love ballads instead of the martial music that it would be possible to hear in the incendiary speeches of President Chavez. In an improvised uncultivated field, merchants and government functionaries of the two countries play soccer. The billiard parlors are full of boys who comment Messi's bad luck. "It does not make much of a case for what Chavez says. Every day he invents something to get attention," a policeman explains.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry I'm a little past my deadline. I've got this horrible habit of munching a midnight snack right about now.

Translation is coming. Come back at about 10:30-10:45 p.m. Central (today).

A Latin American Left Watch ping.

Here's a photo of the guy from today's El Espectador:



I do have a comment. This guy was not killed in an area of the country where the FARC has been active. He was killed about 250 miles west of Bogota in the Colombian Department (i.e. state) of Caldas, which is the center of the coffee-growing region of the country and is quite prosperous, which makes it infertile breeding ground for FARC activity. I know this region of Colombia very well, it is where I lived for about 11 months. Rios was obviously trying to hide in an unsuspected location away from FARC activity.

"Hey! Good to see ya posting, I thought you left us."

No; but I have been away for a while. But I did put my online work to good use.

I did a lot of posting at BayouBuzz.com last year as I followed the Governor's race here in Louisiana. Our man Bobby Jindal blew everyone out of the water, winning our "open" (a.k.a. "jungle") primary with almost 55% of all votes cast on the first ballot, no runoffs. We also more than doubled our Republican representation in our state House of Representatives (the Speaker is now a Republican) and picked up a couple of seats in the state Senate, where we were already strong.

The mainstream media can try to spin Katrina against Bush all they want. The verdict here in Louisiana is that Kathleen Blanco was an outrage and the state just jumped on the Dems at the voting booth.

I did put my time to good use.