U.S. SUPPORTS COLOMBIA IN ITS ILLEGAL RAID INTO ECUADOR

The lead story on the Spanish language TV stations such as Univision continues to be about how Latin and South American nations respond to the invasion of Ecuador by Colombia. Colombia flouted international law in its zeal to kill members of the FARC, the Colombian insurgency group. Recall that last weekend, Colombia sent its armed forces into Ecuador to bomb a FARC camp. The raid left about 16 FARC members dead, including FARC number two leader, Raul Reyes. This is a big story, notwithstanding TV stations and networks in the U.S. all but ignoring it.

Just yesterday, Nicaragua broker off diplomatic relations with Colombia. About the only country in the Western Hemisphere to support Colombia and its embattled president Alvaro Uribe is the United States. Everyone agrees Colombia's foray was illegal and dangerous. No matter how much Colombia and Uribe wanted to capture or kill FARC members, Colombia had no right under international law to cross the border into Ecuador which lies just to its south.

Of course, there is plenty of precedent for this violation of national sovereignty. Consider Israel's invasion of Lebanon last summer. Or take the recent firing of U.S. missiles onto some small village in Somalia. Or the best example: Bush and the United States invading Iraq.

No wonder the U.S. supports Colombia in the raid. Colombia just did what the U.S. has been doing all along in invading other countries illegally. The Bush administration tries to paper over the violation of Ecuador's borders. As to international law, U.S. State Department spokesmen all but ignore it.

TANCREDO WILL NOT PARTICIPATE IN UNIVISION'S REPUBLICAN DEBATE BECAUSE IT IS BROADCAST IN SPANISH

Tom Tancredo says he will not participate in today's Republican debate on Univision because it is in Spanish and he is against bilingualism here in the United States.

Wait! I thought we want our children to learn foreign languages? Isn't that why we spend dollars on education budgets to provide foreign language teachers and foreign language courses? Why is Tancredo against having a Republican debate in Spanish?

I thought he was against immigration in general. I did not know he was really deep down against Americans speaking a foreign language. Tom Tancredo, whose name reveals he is of Italian ancestry is against people speaking and using Spanish? Does that mean he would not be against immigration if it concerned only those immigrants who speak English? How about if they did not have swarthy skins but complexions as white as snow?

Guess what? I bet those who now endorse Tancredo's racist and ethnic and language biases would not have let Tancredo's parent or grandparents into the country back then.

HILLARY CLINTON TURNS DOWN DEBATE ON UNIVISION

I watch Univision, the largest Spanish language TV network, on a regular basis, so I am disappointed that Hillary Clinton has decided not to participate in a forthcoming presidential debate to be broadcast on Univision. Pachacutec's post on Firedoglake.com brought this to my attention. I predict that Sen. Clinton is making a big mistake. For one thing, Univision reaches more viewers than any other cable channels, such as MSNBC or CNN or Fox. Exposure on Univision takes aim at the large base of Democratic Latino voters. Furthermore, Ms. Clinton's decision not to participate will be seen as an outright dissing the Latino community. I sure hope Barack Obama does not make the same mistake.


Beth Reinhard of The Miami Herald writes for Modbee.com:
"Univision is the nation's fifth-largest TV network and the most popular Spanish-language outlet. It invited the Democratic and Republican candidates to debates on back-to-back Sundays in September at the University of Miami.

"We're creating a format where candidates can talk to, not just about, Hispanics and the issues that matter most to them, hosted by the network that they rely on and the news organization they trust the most," said Alina Falcón, Univision's executive vice president.


"Univision reaches more viewers than CNN and MSNBC, which have showed debates. Latino political strategist Joe Garcia, chairman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, said: "You don't turn down NBC, CBS, or ABC, and you don't turn down Univision.""