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Today's Stories August 11, 2007 Alexander Cockburn How the Democrats Blew It in Only 8 Weeks August 10, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts China's Threat to the Dollar is Real Stan Goff How Pat Tillman Died Marjorie Cohn A Blank Check for Domestic Spying Saul Landau In the Age of Immigrant Panic Chris Floyd Goading Xerxes: the Coming Strike on Iran Daniel Ellsberg A Vision for Cindy Sheehan's Campaign Anthony Papa The Upside Down Flag: a Country in Distress Farzana Versey On the Heels of Sir Salman Sgt. Kevin Benderman Freedom or Totalitarianism? Nuri Nuri Memories of T99 Nelson Website of the Day Lessons in Obfuscation from Sen. Larry Craig: How to Talk About Looting the Public Domain   August 9, 2007 Stan Goff The Fog of Fame: Pat Tillman as Everyone's Political Football Paul Craig Roberts In the Hole to China Alan Farago The Terror of the Mortgage Pools William S. Lind The Surge's New Math: One Step Forward, Two Back Doug Giebel Letter from Montana: What the Bushvolk Have Done to America Harvey Wasserman Radioactive Bailout in Advance Jacob Hill The Tail End of Free Trade: NAFTA's Impact on the Manufacturing Sector Raul Zibechi The Dark Side of Agrofuels Dave Zirin The Making of Barry bin Laden Website of the Day "Babies Just Come with the Scenery"   August 8, 2007 Andy Worthington Backing Up Lt. Col. Abraham on Gitmo Abuse Jeff Halper The Catch in Israel's "Generous Offers" at Jericho Greg Moses No Light in August for Texas Refugees: Judge Orders Baby Sent to Palestine Nurit Peled-Elhanan The Murder of Abir Aramin, 9 Years Old Sukant Chandan British Prisons as Islamic Universities Robert Fisk A Lebanese Surprise George H. Strauss The Military Society D.K. Wilson Bonds, the Haters and 756: Why Bob Costas Can't be Trusted Bill Day Leonardo DiCaprio's Baggage: the Perils of Celebrity Environmentalism Tim Campbell Monkey See, Monkey Do Politics Website of the Day Periodic Table of Visualization Methods   August 7, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Why the Surge Has Failed Andy Worthington Why Do We Need the Democrats?: They Have Failed to Restrain Bush on Gitmo, Iraq and Domestic Spying Kathy Kelly The Little Girl of Hiroshima Stan Cox The Antiwar Majority: Look Quickly, You Might Miss It Sonja Karkar Israel's Settlement Project Sen. Russ Feingold A License to Wiretap--Anyone Alan Farago Dancing in the Light of Florida Norman Solomon Let Us Now Praise an Infamous Woman Binoy Kampmark Giving Good Face: What Jeremy Bentham and Facebook Have in Common Dave Lindorff The Gelding Congress John Stauber Coffee with the Troops at Yearly Kos Website of the Day George Carlin on Education August 6, 2007 Bill Quigley Fighting for the Right to Learn in New Orleans Kathy Rentenbach Guatemalan Gold, Guatemalan Bones Uri Avnery White Elephants: Bush's Middle East Arms Deals Col. Dan Smith Of Time and Iraq Ralph Nader Cruise Ship Blues James Neshewat War? What War?: a Report from the New SDS Confab in Detroit D.K. Wilson Barry, Bud and 755 Greg Moses Safe Passage for Willie Nelson Fidel Castro Hard and Obvious Realities Mike Whitney Judgment Week on Wall Street   August 4 / 5, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Rupert Murdoch and the Luck of the Bancrofts Peter Linebaugh Speaking in Irish Tongues Saul Landau Faith-Based War Alan Farago The Candidates and the Collapsing Economy Dave Zirin When Domes Attack: Even in Minnesota Barucha Calamity Peller Oaxaca is Not Over Anthony DiMaggio Double Standards in U.S. Aid to the Middle East Dave Lindorff Spy Power: Bush Demands, Democrats Deliver--Again and Again and Again Fred Gardner Write Off Your Congressman Nicola Nasser The Iranian Option Benjamin Dangl Privatizing Repression in Paraguay Rannie Amiri Bribe, Divide and Conquer Daniel Gross CSR on Trial: Starbucks Behind the Brand Sherwood Ross Obama Renounces Use of Nuclear Weapons Manuel Garcia, Jr A Bridge Truth Movement?: From 9/11 to Minneapolis Missy Beattie The First Mannequin and the "Crime Scene" Ron Jacobs The Outlaw Trip to Mexico: Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad Website of the Weekend Photos: Texas Immigrant Prison   August 3, 2007 Gabriel Matthew Schivone An Interview with Noam Chomsky on Responsibility, War Guilt and Intellectuals Jonathan Cook Israel's Jewish Problem in Tehran Patrick Cockburn Sunnis Walk Out of Iraq Government Little Steven Van Zandt Die, Greedy Swine! Die! Die!: How the Record Companies are Killing Rock Music Christopher Brauchli Bush Makes Putin Look Like James Madison D. K. Wilson Two Sides and a Middle: Michael Vick Ain't the One to Ask Linda Ford and Ira Glunts Maxwell's Silver Hammer: Syracuse University Enlists in the Global War on Terror Kelly Overton The Casualties of Green Scare: the Feds' War on the Animal Rights Mvt. Monica Benderman In Freedom's Name Manuel Garcia, Jr. Minneapolis Bridge Collapse: Was Cheney at the Scene? Website of the Day A Cinematic Look at the Police State in Action   August 2, 2007 Paul Craig Roberts The Return of the Robber Barons Stanley Heller Report from the Land of Apartheid Eric Ruder Fighting PTSD; Fighting the Army Robert Fantina Still Getting It Wrong: the NYT and Iraq Alan Farago The Toxic Mortgage Waste Crisis Chris Floyd Chertoff, Chiquita and Death Squads Franklin Lamb Lebanon's Crucial Special Elections Sen. Russ Feingold Closing the Book on the Abramoff Era Anthony Papa Drug Treatment isn't a Silver Bullet Norman Solomon The Big Guns of August Website of the Day Louie, Louie Video Contest   August 1, 2007 Debbie Nathan More Secret Payments by Former NYT Reporter to Web Porn Star Surface in Nashville Courtroom Fred Gardner Ciao, Michelangelo Gary Leupp Why Iraq's Best-Loved Athlete Can't Go Home David Rosen America's Top 10 Political Sex Scandals Winston Warfield Is the Tillman Case Still a Coverup? Daniel McBride Lessons from Bomber Harris: If the US Strikes Pakistan Glen Ford The Corporate Plan to Crush Black Resistance Thomas P. Healy The Toxic Career of Indiana's Environmental Commissioner John V. Whitbeck The Five Percent Solution David Krieger Nuclear Weapons and the University of California Website of the Day The Tragic Story of Hisham Mohammed   July 31, 2007 Kathy Kelly Dancing in the Darkness: the Story of Abu Mahmoud Clancy Sigal The Ghosts of Passchendaele Paul Krassner Assholes of the Week: From Baby Doll to Cheney Joe DeRaymond Return to the Republic of Death? Diane Christian "Winning": What Bush Could Learn from the Shade of Achilles Chris Floyd Good News is No News: Why the Bush Adm. Buries Accounts of Extremist Recantations Ramzy Baroud Bush's Real Agenda in Palestine Alan Farago Battle for the Soul of Florida Fidel Castro In Spite of Everything: Reflections on the Pan American Games Dan Bacher The Fish Terminator: Schwarzenegger's Campaign to Build the Delta Canal and More Dams   July 30, 2007 Marjorie Cohn: Independent Counsel Time Patrick Cockburn Four Million Iraqis on the Run Peter Quinn Irish in America Uri Avnery A Warning to Tony Blair John Ross Zapatista Intergalatica Lands on Earth Ron Jacobs Free the San Francisco 8 David Vest Farewell, Old Friend: Another Legend of the Blues is Gone Jeffrey St. Clair T99 Nelson: Seduced by a Legend of the Blues Website of the Day Collateral Repair Project   July 28 / 29, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Now the NYT is Selling "Bloodbath" as a Rationale to Stay in Iraq Ralph Nader Rotten Justice Robert Fantina American Lies and Iraqi Nationalism Fred Gardner Prohibitionists Attack, Reformers Fundraise   Yves Engler Handwashing and the Bottomline   July 27, 2007 John Ross Bombing Pemex--or Not? Arthur Neslen Gaza was a Gas for Blair Dave Lindorff Declaring the US a Battlefield: Martial Law is Now a Real Threat Julene Blair The Environmentalist Within Christopher Brauchli Bush Uses Children as Shock Troops in His War on Socialized Medicine Jesse Hagopian Fund the Wounded, Not the War Charles Modiano Manufacturing a Villain: Sports Illustrated's Vilification of Barry Bonds Bill Day The Hollow Environmentalism of Leonardo DiCaprio Walter Brasch Leaders Afraid to Lead M.D. Mitchell Farm Based Camps Website of the Day Fighting Sarcoma   July 26, 2007 Kathleen Christison The Siren Song of Elliot Abrams Andy Worthington Why the Pentagon's Gitmo Study is a Joke Clancy Chassay How the Bush White House Seeks to Destroy Lebanon Marjorie Cohn Showdown Over Executive Privilege Susie Day Apartheid Americana David Price Tour de Witch Hunt: Drugs, Diaries and Purges Marie Trigona Argentina's "Dirty War" Crimes Trial: The Torturer Priest Norman Solomon Media Spin on Iraq: We're Leaving (Sort Of) William S. Lind How to Win in Iraq Natsu Saito Ward Churchill and the Regents at the University of Colorado John Stauber Netroots and the Iraq War: Does Ending It Matter to Them Anymore? Website of the Day Sticking It to the Man   July 25, 2007 Andy Worthington Gains and Losses at Gitmo Gary Leupp Bush Speechwriter, Michael Gerson, Calls for Attack on Syria Ray McGovern The Sad Decline of John Conyers Dr. Susan Block Bonobo Bashing in the New Yorker Joshua Frank Hillary's Neocon: the Imperial Vision of Richard Holbrooke Tina Richards What Harry Reid Doesn't Know About His Own Bill Ben Terrall Indonesia's Bloody Brand of CounterTerrorism Farzana Versey God Acquitted!: Lessons from the Case of Darwood Ibrahim Mohammad Ali Salih A Bomb in My Briefcase? Laura Carlsen A Strange Homecoming: Reflections on the First US Social Forum Ron Jacobs Come to Kennebunkport! Sunsara Taylor Knocked Up is F**ked Up Website of the Day Wal-Mart's Flip Flops: Feet Killers July 24, 2007 Saul Landau How to Walk in Bushtime Kathy Kelly The Plight of Iraqi Refugees in Jordan Russell Mokhiber The Michael Vick / George Bush Thing M. Shahid Alam Islam Now, China Then Patrick Cockburn and Anne Penketh Meeting in Baghdad Dave Lindorff Overcoming John Conyers Binoy Kampmark You Tube You Can't: Failure of a Medium Richard Neville Murdoch's Transplant: a Warning to the Wall Street Journal Cindy Sheehan We Must Move Beyond Politics as Usual Evelyn Pringle Anti-Depressants and Birth Defects: Why is the CDC Downplaying the Risks? Norman Solomon Media Corrections We'd Like to See CP Newswire Reading Harry Potter Not Sinful Website of the Day Sea Islands Black Heritage Festival   July 23, 2007 Andy Worthington Narcolepsy on Gitmo Detainees Uri Avnery A Trap for Fools Patrick Cockburn Turkish Prime Minister Threatens to Invade Northern Iraq Sousan Hammad The Children Without a Title John Walsh Todd Gitlin's Nader Fixation Harvey Wasserman Spinning Kashiwazaki: PR Flacks Rush to Aid of Crippled Nuke Martha Rosenberg The Life and Times of a Hog-Hanging Farmer Collin Baber Here Come the MRAPs: Resurrecting Apartheid Armor for Iraq Reza Fiyouzat Iran's Forgotten Anti-Nuke Movement Stephen Lendman Saving a President: Scare-Mongering and Executive Orders Website of the Day The Port Huron Project   July 21 / 22, 2007 Alexander Cockburn Giuliani and the Dogs of War Werther How to Read a National Intelligence Estimate Ralph Nader Atomic Blowback David Keen Buy Hard: How to Sell an Endless War Fred Gardner Karl Rove, Pothead: When Good Drugs Happen to Bad People Gary Leupp Edelman's Edict: Is Hillary "Reinforcing Enemy Propaganda?" Robert Fantina Fear in Iraq Saker The Future of Palestine: an Interview with Jonathan Cook Rannie Amiri Nasrallah in the Crosshairs: How will the Third Lebanon War Start? Mike Whitney The Crisis in Hedgistan Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD The Hidden Injuries of Powerlessness: Linking Alienation and Dissociation Monica Benderman Facing the Truth Dan Bacher Deltagate: the Politics of Fish Kills Michael Baney Fujimori's Long Race From Justice Missy Beattie Here, There and Everywhere Ron Jacobs Tremble, Tyrants Adam Engel Radical Language: an Introduction Thomas Naylor California Split: an Open Letter to Schwarzenegger Poets' Basement Landau, Ford and Engel Website of the Weekend Surge in Action   July 20, 2007 Eliza Szabo Fatal Neglect: Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan Pam Martens Doctoring the News: CNN's Sanjay Gupta, Laura Bush and Merck Alan Farago Winners and Losers in the Housing Market Crash Harvey Wasserman Lies and Leaks: The Earthquake That Screamed "No Nukes!" Marjorie Cohn Iraqis will be the Deciders Dave Zirin White Noise and the Black Athlete Anthony DiMaggio American Public Opinion and Israel Scott Liebertz Oaxaca on Edge Linn Washington, Jr. British Cops Assault Rape Allegations Bill Piper / Anthony Papa Flying High?: The Political Junkets of Bush's Drug Czar Ramzy Baroud Bush's War Policy: When Time Heals Nothing Website of the Day The Prankster Art of Mark Jenkins   July 19, 2007 Patrick Cockburn The Next Invasion of Iraq Remi Kanazi Is This Ben Gurion or Hell?: a Palestinian Adventure Through Israel's Largest Airport Winslow T. Wheeler The Surging Costs of the Iraq War Sharon Smith Democrats and Health Care: Behind the Rhetoric Dave Lindorff Killing Cabbies in Iraq Conn Hallinan Have Gun, Will Travel: Mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan D. K. Wilson The Michael Vick Case Pulls Back the Veil on Who We Really Are Joshua Frank Democrats as Leviathan: Another Step Toward War with Iran Norman Solomon The Ghost of Wayne Morse Russell Hoffman Rattling the Reactor: Quakes, Fires and Leaks at the World's Largest Nuke Ray McGovern Bush's Wooden Headedness Kills Website of the Day Protesting Power July 18, 2007 Brenda Norrell Spy Towers on the US Border Col. Dan Smith How the US Could "Lose" Saudi Arabia Martha Rosenberg Lord of Crookharbour: the Trial of Conrad Black Conn Hallinan Bombing and Spraying Afghanistan Binoy Kampmark The SIM Card Terror Case Patrick Bond / Rehana Dada Who Killed Sajida Khan? Tom Johnson The Long Road ... to Nowhere Paul Craig Roberts A Free Press or a Ministry of Truth? Bob Quellos Pushing the Poor Out of House and Home Felice Pace Falling for Lieberman's Iran Resolution Robert Weissman National Health Insurance: More Humane and More Efficient CP Newswire Shocking Report Showing Involvement of US Psychologists in Torture Website of the Day Gilad Atzmon Live!   July 17, 2007 Patrick Cockburn Just Another Day in Iraq: 100 Fathers, Mothers and Children Killed Marjorie Cohn Out of Control: Executive Power Plays Evelyn Pringle Inside Bush's FDA David Rosen Moral Hypocrisy on the Hill: the Christian Right, Sexual Scandal and the Pleasures of the Courtesan Susan Miller Width Matters: Displacement and Israel's Wall Franklin Lamb Did the UN Cave to Israel on Lebanon's Shabaa Farms? Don Monkerud Considering Victory in Iraq Harvey Wasserman Nuclear Surge Russell Hoffman Japan Dodges a Radioactive Bullet Dave Lindorff Feingold Turns to Dross Dave Zirin Reclaiming Sports as True Fiction Website of the Day Che at the UN: 1964   July 16, 2007 Gary Leupp Cheney Urges Bush to Strike Iran Ellen Cantarow The Untold Story of Iraqi Women Paul Craig Roberts Impeach Now Allan J. Lichtman The D.C. Madam's Public Service Dan Bacher Cheney and the Klamath: Was the Veep Behind the Nation's Worst Salmon Kill? Patrick Cockburn The Killing of Khalid W. Hassan Manuel Garcia, Jr. Property is Racism James Brooks AIPAC and Mahmoud Abbas: the Undemocratic Road to Defeat Liaquat Ali Khan The Judicial Crisis in Pakistan Julie Flint Suleiman Jamous in Limbo Website of the Day Free Suleiman Jamous!   July 14 / 15. 2007 Alexander Cockburn Support Their Troops? Andy Worthington Gitmo's Tangled Web: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Majhid Khan, Dubious US Convictions and a Dying Man Ralph Nader Lawlessness, Waste and Incompetence Robert Fantina The Illegalities of the Iraq War Ron Jacobs Architecture as Military Strategy Joshua Frank Eat, Fight, Screw, Pray: An Interview with Joe Bageant Conn Hallinan Guns, Foundations and Free Trade: How the Right Targets Africa Dr. Susan Rosenthal, MD War and Dissociation John Ross No En Nuestro Nombre!: a Letter to the Mexican Antiwar Movement Fred Gardner Who's Afraid of Cannabidiol? Rannie Amiri A Primer on Israeli Doublespeak Charles Modiano ESPN's Rap Sheet: Pacman as Black Man Anthony DiMaggio America's Parochial Press China Hand Executive Orders and Coercive Diplomacy Missy Comley Beattie Reprobate Rhetoricians Dr. James J. Murtagh, Jr. Harry Potter Battles Big Brother Kenneth Rexroth On Thomas More's "Utopia" Poets' Basement Engel, Davies and Orloski Website of the Weekend GOP Sex Hypocrites: a Slideshow

Weekend Edition August 11 / 12, 2007 Chronicles of Resistance The Guelaguetza Strategy in Oaxaca By JOHN ROSS With crucial elections for control of the state legislature looming this Sunday (Aug 5th), Ulises Ruiz Ortiz (URO), the tyrannical governor of Oaxaca whose PRI party had never lost an election here until last year when Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's leftist coalition trumped the once ruling party in nine out of 11 federal districts in the state, mounted a wildly spendthrift electoral strategy reportedly costing 200,000,000 pesos, "Operation Guelaguetza 2007", to maintain his much-questioned authority. The election of a left majority in the state legislature would thwart URO's ability to continue to govern this conflictive southern state with a "hard hand" as has been his history ever since his highly suspect election in 2004 (the vote counting computers crashed three times on election night.) The Guelaguetza is a pre-conquest tradition of gift giving that originated amongst the Zapotecs of Oaxaca's central valleys when the villagers would dance for each other as a way of maintaining the general peace. According to Hermann Bellinghausen, a long-time writer on the indigenous dynamic in Mexico, the festival was Christianized by the Dominican priests who followed the Conquistadores into Oaxaca and the Guelaguetza became more of a syncretic ritual fiesta than a true indigenous interchange. "The Indians danced for their white masters and not for each other." The modern celebration of the Guelaguetza was revived in the 1930s by the predecessor to Ulises's PRI as "a racial tribute" (sic) to Oaxaca's 17 distinct indigenous cultures. As the PRI's control in Oaxaca flourished, so did the Guelaguetza and by URO's time, the transnational tourist industry was touting it as "the biggest folklore festival in the Americas", a cash cow for both the tourist moguls and the Institutional Revolutionary Party. Indian dance troupes still pay tribute to the "Senor Governor" with live turkeys, fruit, bread, and flowers and perform their folkloric dances exclusively for the tourists. "The whites make a lot of money off the Indians in Oaxaca - it's an old story," Bellinghausen observes. Now the Guelaguetza is globalized - "you can buy your ticket on the web at Ticket Master with your VISA card." But URO's highly commercialized Guelaguetza got a severe jolt last year during the seven month occupation of downtown Oaxaca by dissident teachers and the activists of the Popular Peoples Assembly or APPO when protestors blocked access to the Guelaguetza auditorium and forced cancellation of the "biggest folklore festival in the Americas." In its place, protestors held their own popular Guelaguetza on the downtown streets they controlled. With elections for the state legislature on the immediate horizon, URO was determined that the show would go on and launched "Operation Guelaguetza 2007" to turn the event into a PRI fiesta and consolidate his party's strength in the upcoming vote-taking. The Guelaguetza quickly disintegrated into a "Guerra-Guetza." The traditional Guelaguetza format lists four performances, two each on successive Mondays in July but this year there were three - URO's two official presentations July 23rd and 30th and a repeat of the APPO's popular Guelaguetza July 16th. Indeed, the popular representation proved so popular that the Plaza de la Danza where it was held could not accommodate the multitudes and so the participants ascended Fortin Hill where the larger Guelaguetza auditorium overlooks the city. They were met by a wall of police and military ordered out by URO's Secretary of Public Security Sergio Segreste who insisted that the celebrants had no authorization to use the auditorium - last year, militants had burnt down the stage set. "This is my hill. My 'ombligo' (umbilicus) is buried here" an elderly Indian woman was caught on video shouting at the police. A rocket fired from a nearby hotel balcony signaled a police charge on the protestors, some of whom were dressed in their Guelaguetza finery. 42 were arrested and held on $2,000,000 peso bail each and 45 hospitalized, several in critical condition. "We shall use the full weight of the law in defense of national and international tourism" Ulises Ruiz declared to the press. The Fortin Hotel from which the rocket was allegedly fired was partially torched by dissidents as well as two city buses. Students were singled out for police retaliation - one teenager Belen Hernandez was taken off a bus and sexually abused before being jailed. Workers at a nearby car wash were rounded up. One lawyer, observing the fracas for human rights abuses, was arrested, thrashed and hospitalized. URO's police warned him to stop defending "these dirty people" ("mugrosos".) APPO militant Emeterio Merrino is portrayed in three newspaper photos: in the first, he is taken into custody by the police and appears unhurt; in the second, taken from a distance, he is being clobbered into the sidewalk under the clubs of the cops; in the third, he is pictured in the city hospital in a coma. In perhaps his single most twisted spasm of cynicism ever, Governor Uliawa wished Merrino "a speedy recovery" and the state prosecutor offered to drop the "charges" against the unconscious man. With Ulises's first "official" Guelaguetza on tap July 23rd, Oaxaca seethed with tensions. APPO activists like David Venegas were snapped up by police and drugs planted on them so they could not be released on bail. Thousands of cops swarmed over Fortin Hill to repel popular attack. A North Korean Tai Kwan Do instructor Kim Nyong Chong was contracted to lead a crash course in martial arts and Jackie Chan-like shouts filled the not-so-festive air. The police were photographed wearing "Anti-Riot Course" tee shirts and practicing the highly lethal carotid artery chokehold on each other. To further sour the Guelaguetza as an international tourist destination, the threat of attack by the newly-revitalized Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) which demands "the presentation with life" of two of its historic leaders "disappeared" from a hotel in the Oaxaca city market May 24th, transformed the Guelaguetza auditorium into "a strategic installation" and troops from the 28th Military Zone were called out to prevent sabotage. With an ambiance not very propitious for voluntary tourism, URO had to fill the Guelaguetza auditorium with 8000 government workers who were obligated to attend under penalty of losing their jobs. To pad out the crowd, thousands of PRIistas were bussed in from the countryside - busloads of dissident teachers and APPO supporters from Mexico City were turned back by URO's police. Although the table was set for a classic police-protestor donnybrook, violence was miraculously averted July 23rd. In a magic realist tableau of parallel mojo, thousands of protestors marched peacefully into the city's elegant plaza from which URO's police had brutally evicted them last November after a seven-month occupation of downtown Oaxaca. Meanwhile, up on Fortin Hill, thousands of PRIistas qued up at metal detectors, raised their arms and removed their sombreros for the mandatory pat downs before they were allowed to enter an official Guelaguetza that featured more security agents than dancers. In the end, the PRI Guelaguetza proved a photo op for the much-maligned governor who was shown fists pumping in the air in triumph superimposed against a background of an overflowing auditorium in full-color, double-truck ads taken out in every newspaper in Mexico the following day. As might be anticipated, URO's second official Guelaguetza July 30th was an anticlimax to all this hoopla and essentially boiled down to a large PRI rally one week before the critical August 5th elections. Once again, the two forces kept their distance - the popular movement which is expected to vote strongly for the left this Sunday once again took to the streets in the city down below and while there were shouts of "Cerro! Cerro!" ("Take the hill!") from younger firebrands and a few unexpected veers uphill, the marchers eventually returned to the plaza. Tempers had cooled during a week of behind the scenes negotiations that produced the release of many of those arrested July 16th. Up on Fortin Hill, Ulises whipped up the PRIistas for yet another photo op. Meanwhile, Emeterio Merrino continued in coma at a local Oaxaca hospital. Hotel occupancy, which, after all, is the point of this show, was reported at either 25% of occupancy (the left daily La Jornada) or 40% (URO's first Guelaguetza) to 60% (the second) by the local hotel association. Many of the rooms rented were paid for by URO to house the PRI "accariados" (bussed-in ones.) Will the Guelaguetza Strategy work? Ulises utilized the folkloric spectacle to consolidate his "voto duro" (hard vote) at the same time pimping the fear vote ("voto de miedo") to fend off a second straight "voto de castigo" (punishment vote) by the left opposition. A low turnout generally favors the PRI - and if all else fails, the vote counting computers could crash a few times on election night to insure another PRI victory. Into this cauldron of election, repression, and social tension jumped Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan who visited Oaxaca July 31st on "an urgent mission" to meet with human rights groups and present Governor Ruiz with a just-issued AI report "Oaxaca: Clamor for Justice" which holds URO and his administration responsible for arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances, systematic denial of medical and legal attention, fabrication of evidence, and torture among other high human rights violations, allegations that Ulises huffily dismissed as being "partial." The Governor accused Amnesty of compiling testimony exclusively from the APPO side of the barricades and his party dissed the report as "foreign intervention" in the Oaxaca electoral process. "Clamor for Justice" was similarly critiqued by Interior Minister Francisco Ramirez Acuna as "exaggerated", a sentiment also expressed by National Human Rights Commission ombudsman Jose Luis Soberanes. Khan was quick to respond, questioning the government of President Felipe Calderon's willingness to see justice done in Oaxaca. One key reason the Calderon government has failed to remove Ulises Ruiz for such egregious abuses is an unwritten deal with the PRI to deliver its hundred votes in the lower house of congress to the administration's legislative package which contemplates the opening of the national oil corporation PEMEX to private investment. The Amnesty International report is one of several issued by international human rights organizations since the conflict began, among them Human Rights Watch and the largely European International Civil Commission for the Observation of Human Rights which recently appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Commission to intervene in Oaxaca. The Organization of American States' InterAmerican Human Rights Commission (CIDH) has also been active in demanding the protection of individual guarantees and will visit Oaxaca later this month. Last month, members of the Italian parliament questioned Mexico's commitment to human rights as mandated by this country's free trade pact with the European Union. One day after the diminutive Khan presented "Oaxaca: Clamor for Justice" to Governor Ruiz and across the street from the hotel where they convened, the EPR took credit for blowing off the front door of a Sears department store in an upper crust Oaxaca shopping mall. The guerrilla attributed the bombing to the EPR's "national campaign of harassment" of the Calderon and Ruiz governments in its search for the two disappeared leaders, Eduardo Reyes Amaya and Alberto Cruz Sanchez. As with many EPR acts, whodunit remains cloudy but the bombing is being pumped up by Ulises, his party, and his friends in the big media, and the Calderon government to stimulate the vote of fear. John Ross is headed north to have his dead eye adjudicated. He can be reached at: johnross@ig.org

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