Mexican Lawmakers Take Stage at Congress

[951-Riverside]

Dozens of opposition lawmakers took control of Congress Friday night — minutes before President Vicente Fox was deliver a major address — and refused to leave until heavy security surrounding the Congress was removed.

The lawmakers ignored demands that they return to their seats, shouting "Vote by Vote" and demanding that the country's top electoral court order a full recount in the July 2 race.

Congress' president, Jorge Zermeno, then adjourned Congress. The lawmakers ignored demands that they return to their seats, shouting "Vote by Vote" — a rallying cry for supporters of leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

President Fox had not arrived yet by motorcade to give his speech. His office said he would deliver his written, annual report, and deliver a televised address to the nation later Friday.

Thousands of Obrador's supporters have been camped out for weeks in Mexico City and had vowed to march on congress to prevent Fox from speaking. They want a full recount in the July 2 election.

Earlier, riot police, attack dogs and towering steel barriers were used to seal off the Congress for several miles in every direction.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/09/01/international/i170818D93.DTL

[JNelson6563]

1. Beat me to it by a minute.

I wish our congress-critters would show such "spunk and moxy". ;-)

[bemildred]

2. "Bring it on!"

If only ours had the balls to stand up for democracy.

[WhiteTara]

3. revolution is in the air n/t

[hogwyld]

19. Unfortunately, I think you're right

But sometimes a revolution is needed to get the peoples voices heard, and to overturn corrupt regimes.

[CHIMO]

4. Mexico leftists prevent Fox's state-of-nation address

Mexican President Vicente Fox was forced to abandon giving his final state-of-nation speech in Congress after leftist legislators stormed the podium Friday in protest of the recent election campaign.

Dozens of lawmakers convened on the stage ahead of Fox's planned speech, some with banners calling the outgoing president a traitor to democracy.

The speaker ordered them to take their seats, but they refused, prompting a recess.

Fox was forced to provide a written copy of the annual speech instead, and said he would deliver a televised address later Friday.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/09/01/fox-protest.html

[Up2Late]

5. Mexico leftists halt Fox speech to Congress (Reuters)

(This is great! This is all Reuters has so far, they should add more soon at this link or will add one on this page)

Mexico leftists halt Fox speech to Congress

Fri Sep 1, 2006 08:42 PM ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Vicente Fox abandoned his state of the nation speech on Friday after leftist lawmakers claiming fraud at elections in July seized the podium of Congress.

Fox handed a written version of his speech to Congress officials and said he was leaving the building without trying to deliver the address.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

<http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=13368981&src=rss/worldNews>

[JNelson6563]

6. CNN: Leftist lawmakers steal stage from President Fox

Leftist lawmakers steal stage from President Fox

POSTED: 8:16 p.m. EDT, September 1, 2006


MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- Dozens of opposition lawmakers took control of the stage at Congress on Friday minutes before President Vicente Fox was scheduled to deliver his last state-of-the-nation address.

The lawmakers held placards calling the Mexican leader a traitor to democracy and refused to leave until authorities removed police barricades that had been set up in advance of Fox's annual speech.

The lawmakers ignored demands that they return to their seats, shouting "Vote by Vote" -- a rallying cry for leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's bid for a full recount of the July 2 ballots.

Thousands of Lopez Obrador's supporters have been camped out for weeks in Mexico City and had vowed to march on congress to prevent Fox from speaking.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/09/01/mexico.protest.ap/index.html

[Shakespeare]

7. THAT is what happens when an electorate demands answers.

This entire country should be fucking ashamed of itself for ALLOWING Bush to seize power. :grr:

[JNelson6563]

8. Oops! Dupe, sorry

Sorry 'bout that.

[acmejack]

11. It's ok the mods don't mind...

[rpannier]

9. The crazy, angry, out-of-control left

I'm sure that will be insannity's take on the whole thing.

[rumpel]

10. the title on front CNN page says: "Protest forces Mexican president to

cancel speech"

hmm - for some reason I like this headline better -

[mom cat]

12. Kick to the greatest page!

:kick: ..... & Reccommended!

[Peace Patriot]

13. Now THAT is an opposition! Imagine Congressfolk backing the people!

It just sears my soul to think what happened--or rather what didn't happen--in our own Congress, after Diebold and ES&S (s)elected Bush in '04--following upon the Supreme Court (s)electing Bush in '00.

Nothing...and...nothing.

Well, I shouldn't say that the Black Caucus in '00, and the Black Caucus-plus-Barbara Boxer in '04, was nothing. Their protest was magnificent. But they were the ONLY patriots, loyal to the people and free and fair elections. The ONLY ones.

Now we find that the whole goddamned Democratic Party leadership COLLUDED with Tom Delay and Bob Ney--the biggest crooks in the Anthrax Congress--to destroy free and fair elections ALTOGETHER, with the so-called "Help America Vote Act" of 2002 and its $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle for Bush's buds at Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia. Now we have Bushite corporations "counting" all our votes with TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code--code so secret not even our secretaries of state are permitted to review it--with virtually no audit/recount controls.

Dead silence--mind-boggling silence--at the top of our party from 2002 through 2005. "Iron Curtain" over the subject of a fraudulent election system and a fraudulent election.

Are they all insane, or what?

With Republicans, you don't need an explanation for why they would support Bushite corporations "counting" all the votes under a veil of secrecy. The new Bushite Republican Party is a foul lot. Stink steams from all their orifices. Now we find that Bush likes to initiate new White House interns by farting in their presence. That's the mentality, and the odor, of the Republican Party now. Diebold and ES&S are a logical extrapolation of the garbage they have become.

But Democrats. How on earth could Democrats permit this to happen? Let me re-word this. How on earth could Democrats permit this to happen without SCREAMING ABOUT IT FROM ALL OF THE ROOFTOPS IN WASHINGTON DC, AND ALL OF THE ROOFTOPS IN ALL OF THE STATE CAPITOLS AND MAJOR METROPOLITAN AREAS AROUND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

Maybe they couldn't stop it. There was anthrax in the air, after all--and a couple of their compadres' small planes had mysteriously fallen out of the air for no good reason--and Rethugs were pissing and shitting in their pants in gleeful anticipation of the Fort Knox of money to made from New Yorkers frying in tall buildings, and getting blown to smithereens, and jumping to their deaths.

But why didn't they at least protest--and apprise American voters of the awful thing that had been done to our election system--and try to stop it at the state level, where the $4 billion was being used to bribe and entice local election officials to purchase this crapass, insider hackable voting machinery, and Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia were lavishing election officials and legislators with items like a week of fun and sun and high-end shopping at the Beverly Hilton?

It's not as if it was a secret WHO these corporations ARE.

DIEBOLD: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer," right up there with Ken Lay), who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush-Cheney in 2004"; and

ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things). Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship; they are run by two brothers, Bob and Todd Urosevich.

These are the people who "counted" 80% of the nation's votes in 2004, under a veil of corporate secrecy.

The third big election theft player, Sequoia, employs Republican former CA Sec of State, Bill Jones, and his chief aide, Alfie Charles, to peddle their machines--an outstanding example of the highly corrupt practice of "revolving door employment."

All three major election system vendors with very close ties to the Republican Party. Red flag, no? And all insisting on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code in their electronic voting systems, and lobbying against any paper trail at all. Un-recountable, un-auditable elections.

Why weren't Democratic leaders screaming bloody murder about this?

Democrats are more complex creatures than Bushites. Fear was a factor, possibly a big one (not fear of "terrorists"--fear of the Bush Junta; although this doesn't explain their silence NOW). Corruption (they, too, were getting lavishly lobbied by the election theft industry; they're all into big gov't contracts, especially jazzy new 'high tech' electronics contracts). Corporatism (corporations control THEM--why shouldn't corporations ALSO control the voters?). The biggest Democratic traitor is Christopher Dodd, a Bilderberg 'Democrat' who actively colluded with Tom Delay and Bob Ney to destroy our election system with unaccountable electronic voting, controlled by Bushites, and is now running for president (announced yesterday on the Al Franken Show). Corporatism--and yet another factor, ignorance--certainly played roles. Our candidate Kerry had Dodd as his adviser on electronic voting--and Kerry didn't realize until after the election who these S.O.B.s were, who were "counting" all the votes with secret programming (or so it seems, from remarks Teresa has made). Ignorance? Possibly.

Almost ALL of the Democrats in Congress voted for this piece of crap legislation. All but two U.S. Democratic Senators*, and all but 60 House Democrats. This contrasts with the vote on the Iraq war, where a hefty 125 Congresspeople bucked the lethal powers in the White House and the Pentagon (and at the New York Times, and in the offices of the 5 CEOs who control all "news" in this country), and voted AGAINST giving away Congress' war powers to the stupidest president in history.

Why did they vote for Bushite corporations controlling the "counting" of our votes with TRADE SECRET programming?

WHY?????

Add it all up. Fear. Corruption. Corporatism. Ignorance. It still doesn't make sense. Until you come to the war on Iraq--and the widened war in the Middle East that is now being contrived. If you're going to conduct a war that most people do not want, in a democracy, you have to rig the elections.

56% of the American people opposed the war on Iraq, way back in Feb. '03, before the invasion. Opposition to Bush and his war is up to 70% today. And a whopping 84% oppose any U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war (in a recent poll posted here at DU). And, although there were many more Congressional votes against Bush's war than there were against the Vietnam War back in 1964 (125 vs. 2), still, the major Democratic leadership was with Bush. All the major leaders voted for the war (except for the one who would soon be dead--Paul Wellstone). About half the Democratic Senators, and all the big prez candidate names at the time--Kerry, Clinton, Edwards. Further, the DNC leadership was for it--so much so that they killed Howard Dean's antiwar candidacy in '04.

I try to control my 'tinfoil hat' tendency. But, really, what it looks like is that they were all in on it. That 2004 was a mock election, and they all knew it. The only people who didn't know were the voters--and the passionate thousands of Democratic campaign volunteers--who were determined to oust Bush, and elect Kerry, and actually did so (overturned by Diebold & brethren).

Why would the Democrats put up with this? Why would they throw the election? Because of Vietnam. Their rank and file has that Democratic Party war in living memory--and would not put up with a Democrat starting a new Vietnam in the Middle East. Answer: let George do it. (--very similar to the Bushite/Neo Con plan for widening the war, against 84% opposition at home--get Israel to do it).

If you think back over the many puzzling events of the last five years (puzzles like the NYT withholdings the Bush spying story until after the '04 election, Kerry's failure to skewer Bush on the torture issue (63% of Americans opposed to torture "under any circumstances"), and his failure even to mention it (this still amazes me), Democratic votes for the war, for the Patriot Act, for Alberto Gonzales--and many other such jaw-dropping events--this theory does make a lot of things start to make sense. We have one party in Washington DC--the War Party. About 25% of our representatives (representing the great majority of the people) dissent from it.** 75% of what I hesitate to call "our" representatives (representing about 35% of the people) support not just the Iraq War/Occupation but a widened Mideast War (which only 16% of the people support), and routinely vote against the interests of most of the American people. And Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia--Bushite corporations!-- will be keeping these collusive Democrats in office this fall, to combine with Diebolded Bushites against the Diebolded minority (and it will remain a minority) of real peoples' representatives.

Gulf of Tonkin, coming up.

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

Well, the Mexican Congressfolk really got me going. Imagine having a real Congress.

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


Notes

*(The only two U.S. Democratic Senators who voted against HAVA (Bushite-controlled electronic voting) were Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer. Go figure.)


**(But why did a good portion of this 25% of our representatives--the real representatives--vote for HAVA? The answer may lie in the awful story of the "swiftboating" of Calif's elected, Democratic Secretary of State, Kevin Shelley. Shelley was doing his job. He sued Diebold for their lies about the security of their voting machines, de-certified the worst of their machines (the touchscreens), and demanded to see their source code, prior to the 2004 election. He was then driven from office on entirely bogus corruption charges--and Schwarzenegger APPOINTED Diebold shill Bruce McPherson to replace him. McPherson has now illegally RE-certified Diebold touchscreens and is swiftly undoing all of Shelley's good government/honest election measures. The state Democrats--with a 2 to 1 majority in both houses--colluded on Shelley's demise and McPherson's installation, and dissenting Democrats were strong-armed into silence by their own party leaders. The previous Sec of State, Republican Bill Jones--now working for Sequoia--had introduced this election theft technology in California. The disease--the plague, the infestation, the corrupting influence--that is electronic voting already had its grip on the state, and state legislators and county election officials were already corrupted by it, when Shelley started trying to remedy it. So those among the 25% of the good Democrats in DC who voted for HAVA were likely strong-armed into doing so, by their own party leaders--like the good Democrats in Calif were. Nothing was more important than HAVA to the War Party! Not the war, not the Patriot Act, nothing. The War Party tolerated dissenting votes on those things. Not on HAVA, the key to it all.)

(Edit: minor typo.)

[Peace Patriot]

15. Bust the Machines--Vote Absentee this November!

I'm not going to let this depressing post of mine (above) stand, without saying what I think we can do about it--about Diebold & brethren, and our party's silence and inaction on private, secret, corporate vote counting, controlled by Bushites.

MASSIVE Absentee Ballot voting this fall. BOYCOTT these election theft machines! Don't vote on them! Let them sit idle! FLOOD election officials with MOUNTAINS of paper Absentee Ballots, and create sufficient panic and crisis in the election theft industry to FORCE reform NOW.

If enough people refuse to vote on these machines, that's the end of it.

Many people are doing this--voting AB--already (it's up to 50% in Los Angeles!). If it spreads to more states and gets bigger--if everyone who despises the Bush Junta (60-70%) votes by Absentee Ballot--we can force these corrupt election officials to the table, and demand a return to TRANSPARENT vote counting.

AB votes are not "safe" either--and will not insure accurate votes counts this November (that is impossible). I am talking about saving the '08 primaries and general election from TRADE SECRET vote tabulation. Massive AB voting will, however, bring more scrutiny to the handling of AB votes, now--and can create the conditions necessary to FORCE reform.

The election reform movement is growing by leaps and bounds--with many lawsuits, new groups, web sites, books, articles, and greatly improved public awareness--but there is nothing on the horizon to prevent Stolen Election III--the Congressional elections this fall. Our voting system is wide open to UNDETECTABLE fraud. If the election theft industry and its Bushite/warmonger decision-makers are smart, they will throw us a few sops this fall--in order to protect their election theft system for '08. But it will not even be close to the Congressional numbers needed to stop the war on Iran, and to open investigations into massive, unbelievable Bush Junta corruption.

We must get rid of these election theft machines NOW, this winter. And a massive citizen revolt against the machines--by Absentee Ballot voting this fall--is the best idea that has come along for accomplishing that. We need a big citizen "vote of no confidence" in the machines.

AB voting is easy. Everybody can do it. (Most states have some form of AB voting.) It will HELP turnout. A protest vote aimed at un-rigging the system is a great motivator. There is massive discontent in the land. An AB voting protest will given expression to it. That discontent is being STIFLED by stolen elections. A voter protest is highly appropriate to the situation. Many people believe that the elections are rigged--but most don't know the details of how it's being done. Promotion of an AB voting protest will inform them. It's not the whole solution--but it's the heart of it. (If the bad guys can count on a 5% to 10% "thumb on the scales" in their favor, then they feel free to violate all sorts of other laws and democratic principles--such as unfairly purging tens of thousands of black voters from the voting rolls, and all their other foul practices.)

Bust the Machines--Vote Absentee!

[CHIMO]

26. Foreign Government

Is now involved.

The Softwood Lumber Slush Fund
Canada Forks Over $450 Million to Bush
By INGMAR LEE

Feldman said:

"...This is in my view an historic, unprecedented, astounding intrusion into American politics. We searched all the way back to the Revolution and found nothing like it in American history. And the question that I came this morning to put is, "Will the Parliament of Canada accept responsibility for possibly tipping the balance in American politics in preserving the control of Congress by the president's party?" This softwood lumber agreement is an historic moment in part because of that proposition, and it's up to this Parliament to decide whether it will accept the responsibility. That responsibility cannot be shifted and, indeed, that money inevitably will go to shore up the electoral aspirations of the Republican party through the president -- it's not going to be touched by Congress -- it's going through an escrow fund. And these are questions that could impact American politics for generations and impact relations between Canada and the United States for generations to come. And that is entirely in the hands of this Parliament..."

http://www.counterpunch.org/lee09022006.html

[dweller]

29. hey Peace Patriot

you should post this as a thread on its own, and it will be on the greatest page.

:kick: ing and R! for both the OP and you.
dp

[Peace Patriot]

14. Great photo of the Mexican Congressional revolt at...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2034745

[dalloway]

16. That photo rocks, folks. Get it up to the Greatest page

as an inspiration to us Americans.

[Judi Lynn]

21. Maybe it will awaken some nearly dead memories of honor in our own

Congressmen and women, but I wouldn't count on it!

That photo is a challenge. It should be seen ALL OVER THIS COUNTRY. Legislators serving the people, for once. What a breakthrough!

Here's a great photo from Up2Late's Reuters article:



Mexican President Vicente Fox (C) hands over the written state of the nation document outside chamber of deputies in Mexico City after opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) legislators took over the presidium, stopping him from giving his address September 1, 2006. REUTERS/Presidencia/Handout

Awwwwwwwww!

They rained on butthead's parade. Maybe _Bush will send some CIA people to do some of their celebrated (by idiots) black ops in Mexico, to get revenge for Fox.

[gasperc]

17. this is big and if it links to Rove and Bush

could finally collapse the Bush administration thorooughly and gives a route to crush the GOP this falll with a full on substantial governing majority like in the 30's instead of the 15-18 net democratic gain for Dems bullst

[Taoschick]

25. Bush and Rove?

You know, we end up looking pretty silly when we try and link every single event in the known universe to those two clowns.

[hogwyld]

27. But if the political shoe fits...

While we may not blame RoBush on earthquaks and such, don't dismess their long tenticles as they try to influence politics abroad as they do here.

[Judi Lynn]

28. American right-wing Presidents have meddled in Mexican affairs

since at least by Richard Nixon's Presidency.

The Mexican Government is still keeping the wraps on the Dirty War which extended over several decades, and isn't admitting too much about the massacre of university students in Mexico City, or the torture and disappearance of "leftists," and the records of BOTH countries will have to be opened far, far more, since people know they were working close together at the time.

~snip~
Still Secret
Although the United States government has declassified dozens of documents on the massacre of Tlatelolco from the secret archives of the CIA, State Department, Pentagon, FBI and White House, certain key records remain classified and inaccessible to the public.

-- Declassified White House documents indicate that the CIA produced an analysis based on intelligence reports two days after the Tlatelolco massacre took place. Dated October 4, the document is called "Mexico's Student Crisis." It has not yet been made public.

-- The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also produced a report on October 4 which, according to a formerly-secret telegram from the State Department dated October 7, "attributed outbreak {violence in Tlatelolco} to confusion between army and security agents." This would contradict the Mexican government's official story that armed student snipers were responsible for the shooting on October 2. The report has not been made public.

-- No document written by the U.S. Embassy's Legal Attaché - who served as the FBI's representative in Mexico - has been declassified and made public.

-- In a November 1 letter written by the State Department's Mexican Affairs Director, Maxwell Chaplin, to U.S. Embassy Chargé Henry Dearborn, Chaplin points out the "intense interest of the Washington intelligence community" in Mexico and mentions a CIA document that has never been made public: a "pessimistic and controversial" memorandum "on the implications for Mexican political stability of the student disorders."

-- The CIA published a secret special report on Mexico on January 17, 1969, titled "Challenges to Mexico's Single-Party Rule." A large portion of the document is dedicated to the student protests and the government's reaction, including the clash at Tlatelolco. The agency released a heavily-excised version of the report on March 2002; most of the document remains secret.

-- Finally, not one document declassified by the U.S. government discusses at any length evidence that government agents operating as snipers from the windows of the Tlatelolco apartment complex may have initiated the massacre of October 2. The Defense Intelligence Agency in particular - which had defense attachés gathering intelligence on the Mexican military at the time - should have produced internal cables, memoranda and analyses discussing the presence of government snipers.
(snip/...)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB99/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From one report:

The draft report's authors write: "The authoritarian attitude with which the Mexican state wished to control social dissent created a spiral of violence which... led it to commit crimes against humanity, including genocide."

They say they base their findings partly on declassified military, police and interior ministry documents and list for the first time the names of officers allegedly involved in the abuses.

The report says that units detained or summarily executed men and boys in villages suspected of links to rebel leader Lucio Cabanas.
Detainees were forced to drink gasoline and tortured with beatings and electric shocks, it says.

Bodies of dozens of leftists were dumped in the Pacific Ocean during helicopter "death flights" from military bases in Acapulco and elsewhere.
(snip/...)

http://lawofnations.blogspot.com/2006/02/report-leaked-on-mexicos-dirty-war.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An important voice in Mexican human rights movement snuffed with the murder of Digna Ochoa:

(snip)
The body of Digna Ochoa y Plácido was found in her Mexico City office on October 19, 2001 with gunshot wounds to her leg and head. An anonymous note found near her body threatened other human rights workers at the Centro de Derechos Humanos "Miguel Augustín Pro Juárez" (PRODH), the human rights organization for which Ms. Ochoa had served as legal advisor since 1988, and prompted lead investigator Bernardo Bátiz to proclaim that the murder was "undoubtedly political in nature."

Over the course of the investigation however an alternative theory began to emerge, suggesting that Ms. Ochoa had committed suicide in a quest for martyrdom, and in March 2002 information supporting that theory was leaked from the Attorney General’s office to the press.

Those that argue Ms. Ochoa’s death was self-imposed cite a litany of evidence found at the scene including the fact that the gun that killed her was her own; that there were no fingerprints on the gun (she was found wearing a pair of latex gloves); and that the locks were intact; as well as subsequent comments from members of the human rights movement about Digna’s strange behaviour prior to her death.
(snip)

Digna Ochoa had represented some of the most politically charged human rights cases in Mexico, many of them involving allegations of torture and murder by Mexico’s military and security forces, including individuals involved in the Zapatista insurgency and more recently Teodoro Cabrera and Rodolfo Montiel, two prominent peasant ecologists in conflict with logging groups in Guerrero.

Since 1995, Digna Ochoa’s work with PRODH had made her the target of harassment, violence and intimidation. In August 1999 she was kidnapped and beaten, and in October she was assaulted, held captive in her home and interrogated for hours about her work with PRODH. Her attackers then bound her to her bed and locked her in a room with an open gas valve in an attempt to asphyxiate her. That same night the offices of PRODH were broken into and ransacked.
(snip)

The controversy surrounding the death of Digna Ochoa casts doubt on President Vincente Fox’s stated commitment to address Mexico’s record of human rights abuse. For more than 35 years, Amnesty International has systematically chronicled hundreds of cases of arbitrary detention, torture, "disappearances," and extra-judicial executions. With the election of President Fox in December 2000 after 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), many believed Mexico had turned a corner in this disturbing legacy.

Yet despite legislation aimed at eliminating human rights violations, a report released by Amnesty International in 2001 documented the continued use of torture in all of Mexico’s 31 states. And despite all the money and effort the current Fox government has been pouring into rectifying Mexico’s human rights abuses, all of the parties interviewed in the April 2003 follow-up assessment agreed that there has yet to be a single apprehension, charge or conviction.
(snip/)

http://www.mbwlaw.ca/Cases/Lawyers'%20Right%20Watch%20Canada.htm



Digna Ochoa

[gorbal]

18. Ah you beat me

Here is an interesting take with video from Euronews

http://euronews.net/create_html.php?page=detail_info&article=377728&lng=1

[hogwyld]

20. I really hope that the corrupt junta collapses

under the weight of the people. And when * tries to steal the election again, we'll have a choice of either Canada, or Mexico for true democracy.

[ArmchairMeme]

22. Vote by vote

I am encouraged to see democratic action being taken.

I remember reading about how the campaign worker (name?) from Bush campaign went to Mexico and using an alias helped Fox in his campaign for President. In that article I also saw that Fox was formerly an executive of Pepsi. Two interesting connections.

[smomfr]

23. Actually Fox came out on top last night..........

He gave his S.O.T.U. speech one hour later on prime time T.V. without the usual inconsiderate interuptions by PRD legislaters. He also added some nice propaganda videos into the speech something he couldn´t do if he gave the speech at the assembly. I don´t know what many DUers have against Fox but he´s enjoying a 71% approval rating here in Mexico and that´s up 2 points since June. The PRD was pissed about all the security around Fox. One PRD senator actually complained about the delays getting to the hall. They´ve only been f**king up traffic in Mexico city for a month now.

[hogwyld]

24. Why don't I like Fox?

Because he hasn't at all helped the poor in Mexico, all he wants to do is send them to the U.S. so they can send their money back. He's a Coca-cola corporated elite that has no concern for the actual election results. Oh, and too bad about the traffic. Civil disobedience is one of the tools to let the corrupt politicians know that they can go down at any time. Hell, even on it's best days, Mexico city traffic is a nightmare. Unless AMLO gets the presidency as he deserves, the whole country could be at risk.

[Judi Lynn]

30. Lopez Obrador Shows Strength on 2 Fronts

Lopez Obrador Shows Strength on 2 Fronts
Mexico's presidential runner-up proves he commands authority within the legislature as well as on the streets to push for change.
By Sam Enriquez, Times Staff Writer
September 3, 2006


MEXICO CITY — By delivering a symbolic but stinging blow to the government of President Vicente Fox, losing presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador clinched the first round in his fight for a nonviolent revolution to transform Mexico.

The leftist leader harnessed the full support of his party's congressional delegation to block Fox from delivering his nationally televised State of the Nation speech Friday, humiliating the president and raising fears over his apparent inability to exercise authority against a growing opposition.
(snip)

Authorities deployed thousands of federal police at the Congress building Friday, anticipating a rush by Lopez Obrador supporters who want a recount of the July 2 election, apparently won by conservative Felipe Calderon by less than 1 percentage point.

But Lopez Obrador called off his army of street demonstrators in the late afternoon. Instead, invited lawmakers of his Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, rose from their seats that evening and took over the hall at a prearranged signal, presumably at the behest of Lopez Obrador.
(snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico3sep03,1,1937732.story?coll=la-headlines-world&track=crosspromo