Colombia Death Squads = Colombian Government

The Washington Post has recently decided to publicize that the murderous Colombian paramilitaries are/were/could only ever have been Colombian government auxiliaries:

MEDELLIN, Colombia — Top paramilitary commanders have in recent days confirmed what human rights groups and others have long alleged: Some of Colombia’s most influential political, military and business figures helped build a powerful anti-guerrilla movement that operated with impunity, killed civilians and shipped cocaine to U.S. cities.

Democrats Cave on Free Trade with Peru, Colombia, South Korea.

According to Democracy Now

Democrats say they’ve won guarantees to protect labor rights and environmental standards in all future trade deals, starting with Peru, Panama, Colombia and South Korea. Labor rights would include union organizing, collective bargaining, and bans on child labor and workplace discrimination. On the environment, countries trading with the US would be forced to comply with existing laws and international accords.

Charlie Rangel (D – NY) defends the deal on CNN as ensuring the right to organize countries party to future free trade agreements. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce believes that there is nothing in the agreement requiring adherence to International Labor Organization standards. Predictably, if there is no enforcement, labor, wage and environmental protections will not be honored, as they have been entirely ineffective with respect to NAFTA.

Potential Green Party Presidential Candidates

I’m just going to mention the most prominent likely/declared candidates. I’ll update the discussion, or create a page dedicated to the topic later on as more web resources become available.

Cynthia McKinney, a former US Representative from Georgia is in the process of leaving the Democratic Party and will probably run for President as a Green in 2008. Recently, some Brooklyn Greens held a meet-up for her and she attended a Green strategy retreat in California. Its not completely clear that she has endorsed the recruitment drive, but she’s interesting because he already held elective office, and has some name recognition nationally. She has some negatives for being a strong, independent woman of color who doesn’t take any crap. The Daily Kos brand of kool-aide drinking Democrat appears to dislike her intensely. You may recall her for getting in a fracas with a Capitol security guard last year. The guard didn’t recognize her and tried to arrest her for skipping the security barrier. She’s been calling for Bush’s impeachment from the day he was elected and has been reviled by Republicans and establishment Democrats alike for being too critical of Israel, too upfront on race and too outspoken in general.

Rebecca Rotzler is a national Green Party co-chair and deputy-mayor the Village of New Paltz, New York. Until recently, New Paltz was one of two New York municipalities with a Green Mayor. The Greens still have a strong center in New Paltz, and Rotzler’s supporters have created a blog page (here) encouraging her to run. Mayor Jason West which was one of the party’s more high profile successes before Gayle McLaughlin was elected Mayor of Richmond, California in November 2006.