Comments on: Claudia LÃ³pez: “From pampered to spiteful”

By: Randy Paul

Randy Paul — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:42:34 +0000

That makes you a voyeuer, Marcos. In any event, I agree with Greg and Tambopaxi, this is an excellent piece and Lopez nails it. Greg's comment at his blog is also spot on:

I would add, however, that the Bush administration should also shoulder some of the blame. During the FTA debate, I wrote several posts about how the FTA was being framed not just as a policy proposal, but as the last bastion of civilization itself. That overblown "us versus them" national security rhetoric further pushed Democrats away because it did not allow for legitimate concerns to be aired. And, ultimately, it failed.

What's more, Brazil has the savviest diplomats in Latin America and possibly in the world. Despite having numerous policy differences with the Bush administration, relations were always amicable. The world, to the Uribe administration is a nail and the only tool they have is a hammer.

By: Marcos

Marcos — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:37:21 +0000

Circlejerk

By: Camilla

Camilla — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:27:40 +0000

Lopez is all wet. She dismisses the ‘indignities’ Pacho describes as mere ‘criticism’ without so much as a thought. She obviously doesn’t know what is going on here. To effectively argue, she should drop the straw man about Pacho being thin skinned and unable to take criticism and confront head on all the bs going on over here against the Colombian government – everything from dirty pool on the rules, to constantly changing conditionality without end, done by people who want no trade, and no victory and no Colombian government. They have no intention of ever being satisfied.

By: Greg Weeks

Greg Weeks — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:35:36 +0000

Great column. It hits the nail squarely on the head.

By: Jaime Bustos

Jaime Bustos — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:54:45 +0000

chris it’s impossible, once you realize that the anachronistic and progressive forces coexist in the human way of seeing things.

Yesterday I was listening to the Savage Nation with Niels Bors (Don’t know if properly spelled) and he keeps bashing Obama to the balls day in and out , no matter what he does, but he seems to ignore the state of affairs Bush left the country in.

It’s a good thing to keep a balance of more or less alternating periods of those forces governing, to even the charges, but I agree it’s a problem with no apparent solution, that men are bound to go round the same old policy carrousel commiting the same old mistakes, killing each other over the same olf passions, acting mean and greedy on resources, as it has been since the beginning.

By: chris

chris — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:34:41 +0000

The only thing that bothers me about the post is that it pretends that the democrats are somehow going to retain power for eternity… what happens to the govts that court liberal principles when the republicans take control in the future… and don’t think it won’t happen.

… I bet a similar column will appear with just the opposite views. The sad, sad state of affairs we must live with these days.

Down with the whole system, dems and repubs. We need something completely new, out of the box!

By: Tambopaxi

Tambopaxi — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:12:37 +0000

Lopez’s column is right on target. Uribe, los Santos and others in the GOC should have acted forcefully on the labor leaders’ killings, military connivance with the paras, judicial harrassment, and etc., long ago, and they should now – but they won’t. All the more reason that Uribe should not have a third term in office; it’s time for fresh thinking (liberal, progressive, whatever you want to call it) and decisive actions of the sort that Lopez cites as needed.

By: Ricardo Velasquez

Ricardo Velasquez — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:03:04 +0000

Hello

I just want to mention that the translation has some mistakes that make difficult to understand the article. Thank you.