Mexico's Fox rails against "messianic" leftist

[Judi Lynn]

Mexico's Fox rails against "messianic" leftist
Tue Aug 22, 2006 10:33pm ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Vicente Fox warned against extremism and blackmail on Tuesday in a thinly-veiled attack on a leftist leader who has headed of weeks of protests over a still-disputed presidential election.

His words were a clear allusion to opposition leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's use of street protests and blockades to bolster his demand that every vote be recounted from the July 2 election.

"Society rejects extremist solutions, messianic or apocalyptic visions that belong to a political culture of the past," Fox said. "Reform of institutions does not happen through violence, threats or blackmail."

Until now Fox has not publicly taken part in the political crisis that engulfed Mexico when the ruling party's Felipe Calderon narrowly won the election, only to be challenged on the streets and in court by his leftist rival.

Some critics of Lopez Obrador accuse him of a "Jesus complex," in his desire to purge Mexican polices of corrupt practices and lessen the suffering of the poor.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=winterOlympics&storyID=2006-08-23T023342Z_01_N28358335_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEXICO-ELECTION.xml

[ret5hd]

1. Those damn "jeebus complex" people...

always wanting to eliminate corruption and lessen the suffering of the poor, when everyone knows jeebus wanted us to stone gays and shoot brown people.

[fasttense]

2. It's all right to have a Jesus complex if you are a millionaire

preacher who owns gold mines worked by practical slaves and make billions off of a religion based on poverty. But don't dare have a Jesus complex if you actually want to help someone besides yourself.

[mom cat]

3. Counting every vote is an "extreemist solution" now.

But vote rigging is not?

[Demit]

4. A messianic left implies there's a satanic right, no?

[UpInArms]

5. George Bush: 'God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1586978,00.html

President told Palestinians God also talked to him about Middle East peace

George Bush has claimed he was on a mission from God when he launched the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a senior Palestinian politician in an interview to be broadcast by the BBC later this month.

Mr Bush revealed the extent of his religious fervour when he met a Palestinian delegation during the Israeli-Palestinian summit at the Egpytian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, four months after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

One of the delegates, Nabil Shaath, who was Palestinian foreign minister at the time, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I am driven with a mission from God'. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did."

Mr Bush went on: "And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East'. And, by God, I'm gonna do it."

Mr Bush, who became a born-again Christian at 40, is one of the most overtly religious leaders to occupy the White House, a fact which brings him much support in middle America.



...more...

So when does Fox denounce the crazy nutcase here?

[zbdent]

6. That is comical ... a rightist decrying the "Jesus complex" for

trying to "lessen the suffering of the poor"

[YankeyMCC]

7. That pesky democracy!!

The people must follow the rules! We allow voting under OUR rules and that is enough no matter how unsatisfactory you think the conditions are!

:sarcasm:


Seriously, these people's (let's call them the Powers that Be) idea of democracy is shockingly narrow.

[Peace Patriot]

8. The Lopez Obrador "messiah" thing was a "talking point" invented here in

the U.S. by Professor George Grayson, of William and Mary College (who wrote the book "Mexican Messiah" --an anti-Lopez Obrdor book) and promoted recently in The New Republic (neo-liberal fascist publication) by Enrique Krauze

https://ssl.tnr.com/p/docsub.mhtml?i=20060619&s=krauze061906 (--unfortunately requires subscription).

We find it echoed throughout the war profiteering corporate news monopoly press. Here is a fairly even-handed NYT article, in which Lopez Obrador answers this charge ("messiah complex").

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/world/americas/17amlo.html?ex=1308196800&en=ee28b1b2e81a5d87&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


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

It used to be they smeared leftist reformers as communists. Now they smear them as Christians with a "messiah complex." What next?

[Peace Patriot]

9. Note: I find it interesting, though, that Fox has shown his hand in this

way--using another U.S.-invented "talking point." He talks of violence. Well, ONLY his cops have used violence. (--in Oaxaca, a violent helicopter raid against striking teachers, in the middle of the night--teachers were camped out; and recently, the Darth Vader bit, barring protests outside the congress in Mexico City). Both the Oaxaca and Mexico City protesters have been peaceful. Then he throws in "threats and blackmail." (--wanting a full recount of the votes is blackmail? how so? a threat? yup, I guess it would be, if you'd stolen the election!) He sounds nervous to me--but his nervousness has to do with money and power--and possibly fear of prosecution for election fraud--not with any threat posed by the people. It's also interesting that, in Mexico, the smears against Lopez Obrador--which began with the bogeyman of Hugo Chavez (leftist/socialist reformer in Venezuela)--have been switched to this Christian theme. Is it possible that the Catholic Church is more despised in Mexico than communism? --not that Chavez is a communist--he ain't--but that was the first meme they tried, and it gained Lopez Obrador votes; so now they're dissing...Jesus? But, really, if you take Christianity seriously--as a lot of Catholics do in Mexico, including rank and file leftist clerics--wouldn't you want to have somebody who believes in the literal meaning of the New Testament ("love thy neighbor") as president? Why would that be used as an ANTI-Lopez Obrador "talking point" in Mexico? Desperation? Playing to the U.S.? I dunno. It's kind of weird. I haven't read Grayson's book--and don't intend to--but I think somebody ought to look into any grants he may have, or other perks, and who published this twisted Rovian nonsense.

It's my suspicion that, in Lopez Obrador, they've found a man that they truly cannot corrupt. It's not that he thinks he's Jesus. It's just that he's honest. And they don't know what to make of honesty. They really don't. And they don't dare let an honest man become president. Christ, the "neo-liberal" roof would cave in!

[MrPrax]

10. Thx for the heads up...

To answer your question...What next? Probably terrorists...especially if the fascist brain trust in America is helping catapult the propaganda.

Wouldn't be surprised to see media comparison's between Orbrador and Nasrallah...charismatic popular extremists who use violence and terror and simply manipulate the poor and desparate for their own messanaic ends and crap like that...

They ruling classes are becoming particularly arrogant in their propaganda of late...

[goforit]

11. Ollie and Stanly love the irony! But ya need the poodle for the 3rd stooge

[BeFree]

12. So...

...we can now claim that anti-Christian forces are the ones who don't want every vote counted, anywhere?

Actually sounds about right...and I do mean Right.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Mexico Approaches the Combustion Point

August 23, 2006

Mexico Approaches the Combustion Point
By JOHN ROSS

Mexico City.

The Congress of the country is ringed by two-meter tall grilled metal barriers soldered together apparently to thwart a suicide car bomb attack. Behind this metal wall, 3000 vizored, kevlar-wearing robocops -- the Federal Preventative Police (PFP, a police force drawn from the army) -- and members of the elite Estado Mayor or Presidential military command, form a second line of defense. Armed with tear gas launchers, water cannons, and reportedly light tanks, this Praetorian Guard has been assigned to protect law and order and the institutions of the republic against left-wing mobs that threaten to storm the Legislative Palace -- or so the President informs his fellow citizens in repeated messages transmitted on national television.
(snip)

MEXICO ON A KNIFEBLADE headlines the British Guardian, but the typically short-term-memory-loss U.S. print media seems to have forgotten about the imbroglio just south of its borders. Nonetheless, the phone rings and it's New York telling me they just got a call from their man on the border and Homeland Security is beefing up its forces around Laredo in anticipation of upheaval further south. The phone rings again and it's California telling me they just heard on Air America that U.S. Navy patrols were being dispatched to safeguard Mexican oil platforms in the Gulf. The left-wing daily here, La Jornada, runs a citizen-snapped photo of army convoys arriving carrying soldiers disguised as farmers and young toughs. Rumors race through the seven mile-long encampment installed by supporters of leftist presidential challenger Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) three weeks ago who have tied up big city traffic and enraged the motorist class here, that PFP robocops will attack before dawn. The campers stay up all night huddled around bum fires prepared to defend their tent cities.

The moment reminds many Mexicans of the tense weeks in September and October 1968 when 12 days before the Olympic Games were to be inaugurated here, President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz ordered the military to massacre striking students in a downtown plaza not far from where AMLO's people are now camped out. 300 were killed in the Plaza of Three Cultures, their bodies incinerated at Military Camp #1 in western Mexico City. The Tlatelolco massacre was a watershed in social conflict here and the similarities are sinister. In fact, Lopez Obrador has taken to comparing outgoing President Vicente Fox with Diaz Ordaz.
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/ross08232006.html

[Acadia Blue]

14. Fox is a corrupt oligarch pig. A swine stealing from the poor. Marx

represented his kind very well. Swine, greed pig, sucking the life blood out of the poor workers and peasants. He is sending them to the USA so they won't rightfully express their displeasure at what the Mexican government is doing to the majority of people.

[Rex]

15. Oh Fox, go back to whatever dug cartel you work for and stfu.

nt