Mercury Rising

"Condi, check that diaper, hon" Bush handling of the PANista government. Image from Reuters on La Jornada Judges Leonel Castillo González y Eloy Fuentes Cerda will be handling the initial review of the electoral challenges for the Election Court. The PRD gets district 1 of Tamaulipas; el segundo, PAN gets district 9 de Chiapas. With 355 challenges, and a deadline of September 6th, that makes for atight calendar. Watch for PAN to run the clock. Watch for the strategy to then backfire as the Electoral Court throws up its hands and concludes that, since the complaints can't be reviewed, the election will have to be declared invalid. Bishop Lona of Tehuantepec said it would be very healthy for Mexico if they counted the ballots publicly. The Bishop Emeritus of San Cristobal de las Casas warned of the polarization that has been occurring. . In Oaxaca, which is in a state of near-anarchy, we can see why they're concerned. The Popular Revolutionary Army, which is not associated with AMLO, is talking "civil disobedience," "armed self defense," and "stopping" PAN, which they call the "fascist ultraright." You know, if Delaware or Colorado were not really under the control of Washington and the local militias that were in control were talking "armed self-defense," I'd be concerned, too. Meanwhile, Calderon has been denying that the elections court can legally require a recount, which I believe is baloney. Recounts can be ordered when there's specific evidence of tampering or fraud. In the 1% recount, there were a huge number of ...um...errors in Calderon's favor, so many that a reasonable person would conclude there had been fraud. Now, that fraud could have been local and not ordered by the national PAN. So, now Mexico will recount more precincts. Suppose many of those show evidence of ... um errors in Calderon's favor. A reasonable person would conclude that there might have been a national plan to commit fraud, at which moment, the law would be consistent with recounting all the ballots. This is almost identical to the situation in recent American elections, where evidence to do the recount emerges from more limited recounts. So, my reading is that Calderon is being dishonest and by issuing his own personal ruling on what the election court can legally do, he's engaging in exerting pressure on the streets as much as the marches of the PRD. As we see at MR, PANistas range far and wide on the marching orders of PAN-central. José Luis Barraza of the CCE (Business Council Coordinator) accused AMLO of stirring violence. Cesar Nava of PAN was revving up their supporters by pre-emptively blaming Lopez Obrador for any violence that might occur. You know, if PAN goes into a polling place in the dead of night to review the ballots and the neighbors object, it's AMLO's fault. This strategy has been backfiring, so today Manuel Espino did the Emily Litella moment: “A party that assumes the burden of governing is obligated to offer bridges, to dialogue regarding all political opponents, and not create political anarchy, not engagie in sterile debate, and not denigrate its opponents." Guess he's been reading MercRising. And if only he'd said that on July 3rd, PAN might be regarded as a party worthy of assuming the burden of government. PRI kicked out Professor Elba Esther Gordilloof the National Educational Workers for supporting Calderon. While I don't understand the complex politics of this, I suspect it presages a breakup between the often-conservative and sometimes corrupt union leadership and the rank and file, which has been radicalized by PAN's neoliberal policies. More from La Jornada, which tells a much more nuanced story than Proceso. In this country, Al Franken is giving Ruben Navarette an open forum to tell us that everything is juuuuust fiiiine; also that Al Gore lost because he was a rotten candidate, and that Busby lost because she was a rotten candidate, and ideas of election fraud in the US are all the hallucinatory product of the fever swamps of the Internet. What a dip; or, rather, a double dip. Fortunately, the audience is booing Navarette, and to his credit Franken has begged Navarette to put down the shovel. __________________________________ The future of news is here and it strongly resembles hell with a coutierier: Noticias por Adela (Televisa). Adela reminds one of a giant lizard, with enormous, thin, hyperflexible lips that make one wonder whether they will suddenly bloat like lily pads to consume her victim. (Image of Adela Micha, from her biography on Televisa In a recent interview with Lopez Obrador, she stroked him like a cat, trying to get him to say something damning on air. Even in Mexico, where physical contact is definitely not necessarily a sign of sexual interest, it was a bit much. __________________________________ I second Avedon Carol for naming Noah Scheiber as Boss Wanker for this story. Given the choice of the crook or the populist, The New Republic will choose the crook every time. They are ^%$ing hopeless. Scheiber's criticism of Ron Klain for urging Lopez Obrador to fight for the election he may well have won? That Lopez Obrador would have to push the way Bush did. Of course, in the Mexican election, it's Calderon's family members that control election machinery, so any pushing like Bush would actually have to be legal. Someone, please change Scheiber's diapers, too.