Video- First Lady Michelle Obama Speaks to Youth in Mexico City

Video- NBC Interview with Michelle Obama in Mexico

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VIDEO of arrival + screams of delight greet Michelle Obama in Mexico

By GottaLaff

Another beautiful encounter with a beautiful first lady:

Dozens of 6- to 12-year-old students — some in costumes, others in gym clothes — welcomed America's first lady with a show.[...]

Mrs. Obama came to Mexico to launch an international effort to engage young people everywhere and encourage them to become leaders and problem-solvers in their communities. [...]

Neither Obama is a product of privilege; both came from humble circumstances. Her parents weren't wealthy or college-educated. He never really knew his father and was raised by his mother.

There she goes indoctrinating children again... even in Mexico. Why, before you know it, kids all over the world will begin to want to reach goals and strive for success!

The very idea!

Video- First Lady Michelle Obama Previews Her Mexico Trip, Raw Footage of Arrival

I hate days like today when the news is so little and far between. Bear with me.

Michelle Obama to arrive in Mexico Tuesday for three-day visit

Keeping busy while hubby tries to save the world.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Michelle Obama is scheduled to arrive in Mexico on Tuesday evening on her first solo official trip as first lady.

The White House is billing the three-day visit as being "in recognition of the deep ties between the United States and Mexico."

Obama has several visits and tours scheduled, including a Wednesday morning meeting with Mexican first lady Margarita Zavala at Los Pinos, the Mexican president's residency. Other events on her itinerary include a tour of the Museo Nacional de Antropologia (National Museum of Anthropology) and a public elementary school that serves local low-income students.

Mexican drug kingpin captured

By GottaLaff

I read about horrific execution style murders on a daily basis, since I live in SoCal, and it's way too close for comfort.

This welcome news just came via an e-mail alert:

Tijuana drug lord Teodoro "El Teo" Garcia Simental captured
Alleged Tijuana drug kingpin Teodoro "El Teo" Garcia Simental -- considered to be one of Mexico's most violent traffickers -- was arrested today on the Baja California peninsula, U.S. and Mexican officials said.

U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials said he was captured in La Paz. He is the second alleged drug lord to be taken down in less than a month by President Felipe Calderon's government.

Garcia is considered to be among the country's most vicious kingpins. Officials say he was to blame for many of the beheaded bodies found dumped in Tijuana and that he ordered hundreds of bodies to be dissolved in acid.
He is listed among Mexico's 24 most-wanted drug lords and the government had offered $2.1 million for information leading to his arrest.

More at: http://www.latimes.com/

My kids live in San Diego, and have had to refrain from taking trips into Tijuana. This is very good news for both Mexico and the United States.

Video- Mexico City Lawmakers Approve Gay Marriage Bill

Video- Complete President Obama, President Calderon, PM Harper: Joint Press Conference

Raw Video: Obama Leaves for North American Summit

Hope he has fun, he's going to need the good juju.

AUDIO: Jay Severin suspended after blaming swine flu on the ‘millions of leeches’ from Mexico.

By GottaLaff

I remember this bigot from his Tee Vee punditiot days. My question is, why didn't they fire him?

Conservative talker Jay Severin was suspended indefinitely today by Boston's WTKK-FM after using the current swine flu outbreak to attack Mexicans and immigrants. [...]

So now in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico -- women with mustaches and VD -- now we have swine flu. ... We should be if anything surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types considering the number of cimminalieans already here. [...]

[W]hen scoop up some of the world's lowest of primitives in poor Mexico and drop it down in the middle of the United States. Poor, without skills, without language, not share our culture, not share our hygiene. ... It's millions of leeches from a primitive country. ... Now they are exporting a rather more active form of disease which is the swine flu.

He-e-e-ere's Jay:

Severin's agent thinks Senor Severin "will be back on the air doing great radio soon."

Scandal! Another handshake and bow from President Obama!

By GottaLaff

Stop the presses! Prez O is shaking hands again!

With the dog of the President of Mexico!

Wait... just... a minute. Is President Obama ... bowing?

The president meets Mexican President Felipe Calderon's family (and golden retriever) on April 16, 2009.
White House Photo/Pete Souza

What will Pat Buchanan say?!

Happy Obama Photos

Holy crap, even Chavez is kvelling.

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Pics stolen from Al.

Obama to speak on making changes to tax code, readies for trip

Hopefully they'll be sane changes.

WASHINGTON – On the day of the deadline for Americans to file their tax returns, President Barack Obama will talk about restoring fairness to the tax code and providing tax relief to working families.

The president is also making preparations for a trip that will take him to Mexico and the Caribbean.

Obama travels Thursday to Mexico City. The stop is a clear signal of support for President Felipe Calderon as the U.S. and Mexico grapple with the deadly flow of drugs and weapons hurting both countries.

Obama will spend Friday through Sunday in the twin-island Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas, a gathering of 34 Western Hemisphere nations.

Jonah Goldberg Sticks Up For Marty Peretz’s Racism

By GottaLaff

Jonah Goldberg is on my Least Favorite People list. Here's another reason why he's inching up to the top five:

[...] Slate’s Mickey Kaus posted an e-mail thread from the off-the-record e-mail list serve JournoList, in which various left-leaning bloggers and journalists (including Matt Yglesias and the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss) discussed whether New Republic editor-in-chief Marty Peretz is “a Crazy-A** Racist.” The thread was a reaction to a blog post by Peretz [...]:

Well, I am extremely pessimistic about Mexican-American relations, not because the U.S. had done anything specifically wrong to our southern neighbor but because a (now not quite so) wealthy country has as its abutter a Latin society with all of its characteristic deficiencies: congenital corruption, authoritarian government, anarchic politics, near-tropical work habits, stifling social mores, Catholic dogma with the usual unacknowledged compromises, an anarchic counter-culture and increasingly violent modes of conflict. Then, there is the Mexican diaspora in America, hard-working and patriotic but mired in its untold numbers of illegals, about whom no one can talk with candor.

National Review’s Jonah Goldberg responded to Kaus’s post yesterday by asking “why will no one defend Marty Peretz?” and claiming that he is “quite surprised no one will defend the man from the charge that he’s a ‘f***ing racist’” [...]:

The “near-tropical work habits” line is unfortunate. But is this whole thing really so beyond the pale? If it is, no wonder it’s hard to have that long-overdue conversation about race people keep talking about.

But it’s pretty clear that racism — real or alleged — isn’t the real issue. These guys hate Marty, hate TNR (no doubt in part because some of them couldn’t get jobs there), and are willing to use racism against their own the same way they use it against conservatives: as a branding tool against heretics.

[...] Peretz is claiming that Latinos are born corrupt. That’s racist.

There’s also Peretz’ well-documented bigotry towards the Arab world…so, to answer Goldberg, perhaps no one is stepping up to defend Peretz because his bigotry is indefensible.

Birds of a feather.

Obama heads to Mexico next month

He's got a full plate next month, I'm pretty sure the G-20 in in April too.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Obama announced Wednesday he will travel to Mexico next month to meet with President Felipe Calderon.

Obama last met with Calderon in January, but this is his first time he will visit the Mexican leader as President of the United States.

The president made the announcement during a session with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that the White House described as "robust and strategic meeting" on immigration. During the meeting, he told the lawmakers that he will discuss immigration reform with Calderon, and ways to end Mexico's drug-related violence.

Obama updates

By GottaLaff

There is a mini-slew (slewette?) of Obama news items:

Obama to officially announce Panetta, Blair nominations Friday
[T]he President-elect will announce Leon Panetta as CIA Director and Dennis Blair as Director of National Intelligence. The officials also say that John Brennan will be named Friday as White House homeland security adviser and deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism. [...] Transition officials are eager to push back on a report suggesting that the homeland security adviser post might be downgraded in the Obama administration, noting that Brennan will also carry the title of assistant to the president, a sign that he will have direct access to the Oval Office.

Next:

Obama picks defense lobbyist as deputy defense secretary

Obama's transition office announced that William Lynn, an undersecretary of defense in President Bill Clinton's second term, is nominated to Defense Secretary Robert Gates' deputy.

Lynn is currently a senior vice president at Raytheon, which has billions of dollars in Defense Department contracts and is the maker of the Army's Patriot Missile system and the Tomahawk missile used by the Navy. The company is also developing a global positioning satellite communication system with the Air Force.

As deputy secretary, Lynn would be involved in the process of budgeting and acquisitions, in addition to running the day-to-day operations of the Defense Department.

Obama's transition office acknowledged that appointing a lobbyist did not, on the face of it, seem in line with the president-elect's ethics stance but that Lynn's qualifications and the recommendations that came from both Republicans and Democrats made him the top candidate.

"Because Mr. Lynn came so highly recommended from experts across the political spectrum, the president-elect felt it was critical that he fill this position," said Obama transition spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Vietor said Lynn and the transition team would create guidelines that would fit the ethics standards of the new administration.

And finally:

Obama to meet with Mexican president
President-elect Obama will meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Washington on Monday, the Obama transition team said Thursday.

I don't know about you, but I'm all slewed out.

UPDATE-- One more:

Barack Obama recommends delay in switch to digital TV, scheduled or February 17.

Sidebar: I'm watching Larry King right now. What has Priscilla Presley done to her face?

Foreign Poll Favors Obama

Amazing how lopsided it is! Via Taegan.

Eight leading foreign newspapers conducted a poll that finds overwhelming support for Sen. Barack Obama in the United States presidential election. He would win by a landslide in every country surveyed.

Canada: Obama 70%, McCain 14%

France: Obama 68%, McCain 5%

Switzerland: Obama 83%, McCain 7%

Poland: Obama 43%, McCain 26%

Japan: Obama 61%, McCain 13%

Mexico: Obama 46%, McCain 13%

Great Britain: Obama 64%, McCain 15%

Belgium: Obama 62%, McCain 8%

The poll also shows that America "can no longer count on the friendship even of its closest neighbours and allies after eight years of the Bush presidency. Only a minority in the countries surveyed describe relations with the US as friendly."

Plane used for CIA renditions also smuggled drugs

By GottaLaff

How efficient of them. Why limit yourselves to one measly illegal act when you can go for broke?

Nearly a year after it went down in the Yucatan jungle, a Mexican newspaper has obtained documentation that a US-owned plane previously used by the CIA for renditions and trips to and from Guantanamo Bay was also used to smuggle cocaine. Reports Agency France Press:

MEXICO CITY (AFP) - A private jet that crash-landed almost one year ago in eastern Mexico carrying 3.3 tons of cocaine had previously been used for CIA "rendition" flights, a newspaper report said here Thursday, citing documents from the United States and the European Parliament.

The plane was carrying Colombian drugs for the fugitive leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, when it crash-landed in the Yucatan peninsula on September 24, El Universal reported.

The daily said it had obtained documents from the United States and the European Parliament which "show that that plane flew several times to Guantanamo, Cuba, presumably to transfer terrorism suspects."

It said the European Parliament was investigating the private Grumman Gulfstream II, registered by the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, for suspected use in CIA "rendition" flights in which prisoners are covertly transferred to a third country or US-run detention centers.

It also said the US Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) logbook registered that the plane had traveled between US territory and the US military base in Guantanamo.

To give credit where it's due, the Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jay Root first broke the story last year (reporting with Kevin Hall of McClatchy News), and the web-based Mad Cow News was all over the case after it came out. According to MCN reports, this plane is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of US-registered planes smuggling dope for Mexican cartels. Even so, the story almost immediately died down here in the States, though obviously the Mexican press continues to investigate.

And from Mad Cow News, it seems a Bush fundraiser is linked to the CIA drug/rendition plane:

Moreover at the same time the Bush Ranger extraordinaire Stephen Adams owned the Gulfstream (N987SA) in 1999 and 2000, he was personally buying over $1 million of billboard ads for George W. Bush for his 2000 Presidential election bid.

Bush's fellow conjoined triplets should be proud.

H/t: Fernando

Just say no: U.S. guns arm Mexican drug cartels

By GottaLaff

I woke up to this in my L.A. Times this morning:

High-powered automatic weapons and ammunition are flowing virtually unchecked from border states into Mexico, fueling a war among drug traffickers, the army and police that has left thousands dead, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.

The munitions are hidden under trucks and stashed in the trunks of cars, or concealed under the clothing of people who brazenly walk across the international bridges. They are showing up in seizures and in the aftermath of shootouts between the cartels and police in Mexico.

More than 90% of guns seized at the border or after raids and shootings in Mexico have been traced to the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Last year, 2,455 weapons traces requested by Mexico showed that guns had been purchased in the United States, according to the ATF. Texas, Arizona and California accounted for 1,805 of those traced weapons.

No one is sure how many U.S.-purchased guns have made their way into Mexico, but U.S. authorities estimate the number in the thousands.

It's good to share with our neighbors.