The Wall St. Journal has followed in a tradition of Amercia's mainstream news coverage of Latin American coups against leftists leaders with this opinion piece by Mary Anastasia O'Grady: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124623220955866301.html

Unless we support the Marines kicking U.S. Presidents out of the country for the crimes they see fit to enforce and appointing new Presidents, we would be patronizing to conclude that such tactics might be appropriate for Honduras.

por: Nick Cooper || tradducción por: Julita Rincón

whileromeburns.org tells us "Last month more than 600,000 Americans lost their jobs. Every additional day we delay the stimulus bill, another 20,000 get downsized. Please pass a bill now which creates the most jobs possible."

Who Are The Two Sides?

There have been protests and counter-protests across the U.S. about the Israeli attack on Palestine, and the two sides of the conflict don't agree about much, including how to identify themselves. I call my side "anti-war / anti-occupation," but to the other side, we are "Hamas supporters," or even anti-Semitic! To me, this other side is "pro-war," or "pro-Israeli" but they self-identify as "Jews," or "pro-democracy" or even "pro-diversity."

Language used by politicians is often vague, contradictory and elusive.  Students of language have much to learn from examining sentence structure and word usage in political speech.  As a short example, lets examine a quote from James Connaughton, Bush's senior environmental adviser, that ran in many newspapers in August 2007: "The emerging consensus is that the solution to climate change is the advancement of technology.  And there is also consensus that you need growing economies to pay for that technology."

In the politics of immigration, what the pro-enforcement and pro-human rights groups have in common is huge: both are concerned with problems created by mass-migrations of people from Mexico and Central America.  If the two groups were able to join to take on the root causes of immigration, they could be a powerful force for change.  However, as long as pro-enforcement groups support militarization of the border and mass arrests of immigrants, human rights activists will react, spending vital energy attempting to undo the injustices that necessarily come with enforcement policies. Meanwhile, little is done by either side about the sources of the problems.

Once again, here are my translations for Bush's speech...

> Seven years have passed since I first stood before you at this rostrum. In that time, our country has been tested in ways none of us could have imagined.

And we got an F.

> We have faced hard decisions about peace and war, rising competition in the world economy and the health and welfare of our citizens.

When I say "we" I mean both of us, me and Cheney.

> These issues call for vigorous debate, and I think it's fair to say we've answered that call.

traducción por Julita

Cuando se trata de política migratoria, los grupos en pro de derechos humanos y organizaciones de orden publico tienen en comun un acuerdo muy amplio: es que ambos están preocupados por los problemas creados por las grandes migraciones de México y Centroamérica. Si ambos grupos unieran fuerzas para combatir la raíz del problema, tendrían el poder para lograr un cambio. Sin embargo, mientras que los grupos a favor de reforzar la vigilancia del cumplimiento de las leyes sigan apoyando la militarización de la frontera y los arrestos masivos de migrantes, los activistas de derechos humanos tendrán que continuar reaccionando y gastando energía vital al intentar evitar las injusticias que cometen las fuerzas policiacas. Mientras tanto, la raíz del problema continua intacta por ambos grupos.

    On July 31, and again on September 20, people arrived in Jena, Louisiana from all over to protest. In July, several hundred arrived, but by September there were between 20 and 60 thousand. Within those weeks, mainstream America had heard of this small town. The case caught the public imagination because of many factors, especially the indelible image of the nooses.

When I attended the rally in July, I was impressed by the racial diversity, but in September, I was depressed by its absence. While the protesters and alternative media focused on the not so shocking statistic that Jena is 85% white, the movement for justice in Jena had become close to 99% black. A more racially diverse protest in Jena could have shown Jena, the media, and the protesters themselves a vision of what an alternative to racial separation looks like.