NO QUARTER » Colombia

The Biden “Gaffe”: A “race” for the soul of the next President? [update]

Steve Diamond — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:35:25 +0000

Update note by editor: Steve Diamond is a professor of law and expert in global economics. His blog is “Global Labor and Politics.”

Just when you had wished you had indeed heard the last of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, it turns out they are publishing a new manifesto described in brief on Amazon.com.

What makes the book blurb – this one apparently not written by their long time, umm, colleague, co-education policy wonk, fellow intellectual and, yes, neighbor Barack Obama – worrisome is that it links what Ayers and Dohrn say is America’s continuing sin, racism and “white supremacy,” with their views on war.

In other words just as Barack Obama moves to the White House, these two destructive figures out of the past are about to advocate an entire new world view for America built around their curious race-centric obsession. Presumably this will be an opportunity to peddle, one more time, their Third Worldist clap trap which mandates that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

This narrow and dangerous thinking is what led Ayers, Dohrn and others in their camp to embrace figures like Castro, Ortega, and Chavez even as they trample all over the civil rights of their citizens in order to maintain their authoritarian hold on power.

[Editor's note: See Uppity Woman's October 28th article here, "RBO: Team Cuba” — Ayers, Dohrn, just “two political activists” from Obama’s neighborhood, visited Cuba in September 2008.]

(Hmm, was it Bill Ayers, now apparently a foreign policy thinker, who suggested sit downs between President Obama and dictators like Ayers’ friends?)

Nothing has done more damage to the efforts of genuinely progressive forces on the left attempting to change America’s foreign policy in a peaceful and democratic direction than those who advocate the embrace of figures like these as the way forward for the world.

Perhaps the appearance of this manifesto, however, helps put some of the recent comments of Obama running mate Joe Biden in a more comprehensible context. Biden was widely criticized for suggesting that an Obama presidency would be “tested” by a foreign policy crisis soon after taking office. The comment was dismissed by most as yet another Biden “gaffe.” Yet that criticism did not stop Biden’s camp from defending the comments made to a Seattle audience.

In light of the willingness of Obama backers like Ayers and Dohrn to now more openly express their own views on foreign policy, built around their long standing view of America as a racist nation, Biden may have felt a response was called for – a kind of shot across the bow, if you will, of the third worldist/neo-stalinist element in the Obama camp.

No doubt the assumption among Biden confidantes is that the election is over and the battle for the soul of the Presidency is on. It cannot be viewed without concern by mainstream figures in the liberal internationalist wing of the Democratic party that discussion about the connection between Ayers and someone like the Palestinian academic Rhashid Khalidi has now emerged.

It has long been known that Khalidi and Obama were close, but given Obama’s connection to strong supporters of Israel that could be dismissed as an attempt to absorb perspectives from all sides.

But it turns out that while Obama and Khalidi have often had dinner together and the Khalidi’s, indeed, did babysit the Obamas’ kids, Khalidi and Ayers are even closer – Khalidi credits Ayers with providing some help writing a book, for example.

The Woods Fund on whose board Obama and Ayers sat awarded tens of thousands of dollars in grants to a foundation on Arab American issues run by Khalidi’s wife. When Khalidi left his teaching position at the University of Chicago in 2003 to take up the Edward Said Chair at Columbia, Obama spoke at a dinner in his honor. Ayers and Dohrn, some say, were also in the audience. A videotape of the dinner is in the hands of the Los Angeles Times but they have refused calls to release it.

Of course, over the past few years one of the central foreign policy issues where cries of “racism” have been used is to attack US foreign policy towards Israel. While Khalidi seems to stop short of the formulation by some that “Zionism is Racism,” he does argue that Israel’s policies are “systematically racist.”

Just as Ayers and Obama have endorsed ideas based on reparations for American slavery, Khalidi backed the idea of discussing reparations for American slavery alongside of what he called Israel’s “racist” policies as part of the UN’s World Conference on Racism in 2001.

Tragically, no third pole between the traditional Democratic party’s neo-liberal internationalism, on the one hand, and the neo-Stalinists’ “America is a racist nation” viewpoint, on the other, has emerged in this campaign except a rather feeble effort by the Nader ticket.

No evidence, of course, that Biden cares about that, unfortunately.

Amazon.com: Race Course Against White Supremacy: William C. Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn: Books

Obama’s Chavez Communist Hezbollah Hamas Problem

Larry Johnson — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:05:52 +0000

Barack Obama’s circle of advisors and supporters are playing with fire that could singe or even incinerate their King by cozying up to the Venezuelan strongman, Hugo Chavez. Chavez, a Castro wannabee, is more audacious than Barack and is backed by a healthy wad of oil dollars from Venezuela’s bounteous supply. Chavez, when not making interminable speeches or engaging in symbolic populism, also amuses himself with foreign meddling and support for causes that directly challenge the United States.

Flush with cash, Chavez has sent money and material assistance to the FARC–i.e., the Armed Revolutinary Force of Colombia–a longstanding Marxist insurgent group responsible for more than three decades of terrorism in Colombia. The FARC is like a prehistoric bug frozen in amber. They are completely out of touch with the modern world and refuse to acknowledge that Colombia is no longer a nation dominated by a small group of elites bent on plundering the masses. No matter. The FARC believes it is true and therefore, by definition, it must be true.

According to an Associated Press report on Sunday:

Documents that Colombia says it recovered from a slain guerrilla leader give the clearest indication yet that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sought to arm and finance insurgents across the border.

The documents — more than a dozen internal rebel messages — detail several years of close cooperation between top officials in Venezuela’s government and military and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, including the construction of rebel training facilities on Venezuelan soil.

They also suggest Venezuela was preparing to loan the rebels at least US$250 million (euro190 million), provide them with Russian weapons and possibly even help them obtain surface-to-air missiles for use against Colombian military aircraft.

Most importantly, they outline a joint strategic project between Venezuela and the Colombian rebels, with Venezuela even seeking rebel training in “asymmetrical warfare” in preparation for a feared U.S. invasion.

This information is true. It is not fabricated. It is not planted. I also know, firsthand, from conducting undercover investigations in Colombia in the northeast Guajira peninsula, that a significant community of merchants with ties to Hezbollah, who lived and operated in Maicao, Colombia, have moved across the border and set up shop in Venezuela. I am not suggesting they are preparing terrorist attacks. These muslim merchants with strong family ties to Hezbollah in Lebanon are worried first and foremost about making money. A substantial portion of their wealth is obtained thru smuggling and grey market activities. They are willing to send money to Hezbollah but, so far, have shied away from supporting terrorist attacks on this continent.

Oh, and did I mention Hamas. A minority of the muslim merchants that moved across the border into Venezuela are tied to Hamas.
And Chavez, not missing a beat, rolled out the welcome mat for Hamas:

Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez looks decided to go ahead with his self-denominated “anti-imperialistic” foreign policy despite Washington’s open and shady threats. This week, Caracas made public two moves meant to help US foes in Middle East. Hamas leaders will be received by Mr. Chavez “with pleasure”, as the South American oil-rich country confirmed that counts Iran as “great ally of brothers”.

“If they come, it will be a pleasure,” Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel told reporters when asked by reporters whether the government would receive a Hamas delegation. What is the problem with that? Aren’t they going to be received by Russia, Brazil and Argentina? And what’s more, they have a majority with the Palestinian people; they just won an election.”

So what does this have to do with Barack Obama. Let’s start with Bill Ayers again. You know, the guy Barack barely knew but also the same guy who named Barack as President of the Chicago School Reform Collaborative (The Annenberg Challenge). Ayers is a frequent visitor to Venezuela and also enjoys a relationship with Chavez. Here is part of what Bill Ayers said in November 2006:

President Hugo Chavez, Vice-President Vicente Rangel, Ministers Moncada and Isturiz, invited guests, comrades. I’m honored and humbled to be here with you this morning. I bring greetings and support from your brothers and sisters throughout North America. Welcome to the World Education Forum! Amamos la revolucion Bolivariana!

This is my fourth visit to Venezuela, each time at the invitation of my comrade and friend Luis Bonilla, a brilliant educator and inspiring fighter for justice. Luis has taught me a great deal about the Bolivarian Revolution and about the profound educational reforms underway here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez. We share the belief that education is the motor-force of revolution, and I’ve come to appreciate Luis as a major asset in both the Venezuelan and the international struggle—I look forward to seeing how he and all of you continue to overcome the failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane. Thank you, Luis, for everything you’ve done. . . .

Totalitarianism demands obedience and conformity, hierarchy, command and control. Royalty requires allegiance. Capitalism promotes racism and militarism – turning people into consumers, not citizens. Participatory democracy, by contrast, requires free people coming together voluntarily as equals who are capable of both self-realization and, at the same time, full participation in a shared political and economic life.

Education contributes to human liberation to the extent that people reflect on their lives, and, becoming more conscious, insert themselves as subjects in history. To be a good teacher means above all to have faith in the people, to believe in the possibility that people can create and change things. Education is not preparation for life, but rather education is life itself,an active process in which everyone— students and teachers– participates as co-learners. . . .

Let those of us who are gathered here today read this poem as “The Teacher’s Obligation.” We, too, must move in and out of windows, we, too, must build a project of radical imagination and fundamental change. Venezuela is poised to offer the world a new model of education– a humanizing and revolutionary model whose twin missions are enlightenment and liberation. This World Education Forum provides us a unique opportunity to develop and share the lessons and challenges of this profound educational project that is the Bolivarian Revolution.

That, boys and girls, is classic marxist bullshit. Capitalism, baaaaddd. Communism. Goooood. The “Revolution” lives.

Oh, did I mention that one of Barack’s big fundraiser also hearts Chavez. Jodie Evans, bundler for Barack, also made the pilgrimage to Caracas to engage in the verbal equivalent of buttocks smooching.

So here is the question for Barack–many of your followers, fundraisers, and longtime advisors believe that Hugo Chavez’s revolution is something superior to the capitalist model followed in the United States. Do you agree with them or disagree with them?

Here’s another question. Hugo Chavez is using his money to support terrorists that are attacking democratic nations and is welcoming the representatives of terrorist groups to come to his country. At the same time, your former boss, Bill Ayers, and one of your key fund raisers, Jodie Evans, are embracing Chavez and praising his leadership. Will you repudiate their actions and return the Code Pink money you have received?

And what about Venezuela’s subversion in Colombia? Will you insist that Venezuela respect Colombia’s borders and end its support to the FARC?

I am guessing that Barack will say no to the first two. I don’t know his position on the last question. What do you think?

Oh, and one last item. A significant portion of the oil we consume comes from Venezuela. What happens when Venezuela tries to use oil as a weapon against us? Saudi and Iraqi oil has little relevance to our daily lives. Not so with Venezuelan crude. But that’s a topic for another day.