CHOQUE DE TRICICLOS

After that again he went through the village,

and a child ran and dashed against his shoulder.

And Jesus was provoked and said unto him:

Thou shalt not finish thy course (lit. go all thy way).

And immediately he fell down and died.

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas IV:1

Adiós primate.

The heavens stopped the rain al norte de la parte mexicana del Golfo de México, el fenómeno por el momento se ha retirado, pero seguramente no tardará otro en volver, pa' mayor desgracia de los desgraciados. Mientras eso sucede, hemos de mantener un ojo a la heatwave (todavía sin ser reminiscencia total de aquella mataviejitos europea del 2003) que, según esto, azota a gran parte del hemisferio norte , con tal de evitar que nos agarre de improviso.



Existen otros que no desaprovechan la oportunidad. Al mismo tiempo (en) que ellos cuidadosamente observan los yerros del vecino, afilan sus espadas para (utilizarse en) el momento oportuno. Indeed! Tanto en el interior como en el exterior de nuestros límites territoriales, el (involuntario o largamente estudiado) inseguro y erróneo comportamiento reciente de nuestro ilegítimo liderazgo, pone en guardia aún a los menos entusiastas a la silla y... lo demás. Y es que, a pesar del hidden megacrash, los menos turulatos (aka tontos útiles in Mexico) alistan su (de muy variado tamaño) resurgimiento: regulación financiera (anatema por aquí) a la vista capitán; recursos naturales bajo control estatal, comandante; inesperadas demandas sociales a nuestra retaguardia, sargento; los primeros pasitos hacia una (supuestamente fallida en otros lares, camaradas) unión monetaria, jefecito; en fin, the show must go on everywhere... but here. A nivel indígena escuchamos: "let it be, ellos se van a matar solitos, compas; tú como quiera manténte alerta por si hay que mover un dedulce". En efecto, entre sus apuestas, no está usted ni estoy yo, it is plainly a I, me and mine own world! Total, conejo yo, sino aprovecho ahora que me pusieron 'onde hay.



La culpa no es del mocho sino del que lo hace padrino.

No es un misterio para nadie que en los pinoles faltan... gentes con, a lo mocho, perdón, mucho, dos dedos de materia gris. ¡A qué pimpón enfermiza obsesión con el extremo noroeste del país, honestly! Chance y a lo mejor intentaron agarrarnos el, sorry, en seco durante el summer break; si así fue, para ser sincero, el tiro no les salió muy bien; del pitorreo (por ahí ya dicen que, lo único que le queda grande es el Palacio de Covián) a sacar ventaja de la situación, juro que pasa menos de un mes. Now, si el motivo fue la nula efectividad del anterior, pus 'tonz patitas a la calle a toda la perrada, perdón, al gabinetito. Hasta acá puedo oír su: then what you think? Well, seems our president bets that by going back to an ethylic, pardon, idyllic past, everything's gonna end up well. No, Sir; so much more is needed to rule a country like ours, y aceptar la realidad. Los viejos lobos de todo el espectro político han solo de esperar el instante propicio (ask al che Ahumada not me, pa' su mayor seguridad) del final de su batalla de sobredimensionados egos, i.e., choque de triciclos, para aprovechar los despojos de su sueño dictatorial.



El Clon

¡Ay, Jesús de Veracruz! ¿Y 'ora pa' 'ónde me hago? En un arrebato que ya no se espanta ni a sí mismo (porque no es sino uno más en una larga lista de berrinches inofensivos), testificamos "importantes cambios" en el gabinete presidencial. Y es verdad que pocos bytes nos debería el tema ocupar, de no ser porque las poses de emperador de petatiux, nos dan visos de una muy publicitada gobernabilidad, que en realidad es puesta en riesgo máximo. ¡Pa' cómo ya, oh, patria mía, te veía! ¿Se trata, la neta, aquí entre nos, de escalar del nivel de gobierno a estado fallido? ¡Vaya sorpresita -nomás pa' los que se pierden mis posts, je, je- con el clon de Uribe! He de suponer que ha dejado de ser una inversión redituable para más de un patriótico empresario; yeah! the same ones that helped him (¡haiga sido como haiga sido!) to get the sooo much desired 2006 prize (1), too late, myths! No encuentro tampoco razón alguna para dudar, que no pocos en el ambito político, en este río revuelto mucho han de pescar. Sin embargo, yo sí sospecho que, si alguna gota de amor por su país por sus venas corre todavía, entonces tales gracejadas infantiles (al más puro Zedillín style) alguna sonrisa le puedan arrancar. Si no está dispuesto a ser el único que permanezca chiflando en la loma, mientras un chiflado dirige el país, tonz a asté le urge su feudo de resistencia encontrar. Donde sea que se pueda acomodar, seguro que si, como todos nosotros, no es de fácil rendición, pronto con usted nuestra tercera rebelión podremos festejar. AL TIEMPO.

M@RChOpper;

MATAmoros, TAMuy_alto_ese_manubrio;

16/07/10.

... What's your excuse now?

Please, don't blame the genes, anymore!



SPECIAL REQUESTS:

(1) Se los sugiero muy dendenantes; ya cuando les agarre la urgencia de postular al otro muñeco pa' la grande, el relevo en la SEP se lo podrían sacar de la dirección de cualquier CENDI en Tijuas, ¿no?

SHOOTING IN TIJUANA( BALACERA EN TIJUANA)



MEMORY SHOTS:





ENCORE A LA DEFENSIVA:























http://marcosalas.blogspot.com/2010/07/choque-de-triciclos-after-that-again-he.html
http://creatividadsocialmentecomprometida.blogspot.com/2010/07/choque-de-triciclos-after-that-again-he.html

The World from Berlin

Regional Minority Government 'Doomed to Failure'

ddp

North Rhine-Westphalia's new Governor Hannelore Kraft (SPD) with her deputy Sylvia Löhrmann of the Greens.

The Social Democrats and Greens took control of Germany's most populous state on Wednesday with the election of a minority coalition government -- a situation that will force them to seek support from opposition parties. Conservative commentators warn that the experiment gives too much influence to the far-left Left Party.

The fate of a new minority government in North Rhine-Westphalia is being watched by party strategists across the political spectrum in Germany. What happens here, after all, could have a huge effect in other states, and even on the political landscape in Berlin. The coalition of center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens that took power on Wednesday in NRW will have to rely on support from other parties to get any reforms through parliament. In particular it will be looking to the hardline Left Party for backing.

The SPD and Greens failed to secure a majority of seats in the May 9 election and, following unsuccessful negotiations with the other parties, decided to forge aheadby forming a minority government. On Wednesday, regional SPD leader Hannelore Kraft was sworn in as governor after a second round of voting in the state assembly gave her a simple majority of 90 votes to 80, with the 11 Left Party members abstaining. Regional Green leader Sylvia Löhrmann will be the deputy governor and education minister.

Those on the right now warn that the new constellation gives too much influence to the Left Party, which has roots in the former East German Communist Party (SED), and they argue tolerance of the SPD-Green coalition will pave the way for an eventual coalition of all three parties at the federal level. While the SPD does govern with the Left Party in both the states of Berlin and Brandenburg it insists that the party -- an amalgam of former eastern communists and fringe far-left groups from western Germany -- is still not ready to govern nationally.

Relations between the Left Party and its closest allies -- the Social Democrats and Greens -- have become, if anything, more strained of late. In June a federal group of Left Party members refused to back Joachim Gauck, the other two parties' candidate for the German presidency. Their abstention saw Chancellor Merkel's candidate Christian Wulff elected -- albeit after three rounds of voting.

Meanwhile, the new government in North Rhine-Westphalia has attracted criticism for announcing that state borrowing for 2010 will have to drastically increase from a planned €6.6 billion ($8.44 billion) to €9 billion ($11.5 billion). The SPD-Green coalition says the debts are necessary due to the failed policies of the outgoing governing coalition of Christian Democrats and pro-business Free Democrats.

The German press on Thursday mulls the new coalition and its implications for federal politics. Predictably the more left-leaning newspapers are largely positive, while those of a more conservative bent warn of disaster.

The conservative Die Welt writes:

"In everything they initiate, the Social Democrat Kraft and the Green Löhrmann will have to take into account the position of the Left Party, above all, if they want to do more than act as a transitional government ahead of new elections. The increase of new borrowing by almost €3 billion this year alone is therefore not just a fiscal adventure. This new debt is the first political kowtowing to those who are supposed to tolerate the government. An 11-vote abstention was never so dearly bought."

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"A minority government is not democratically inferior: Its value can reveal itself ... in the day-to-day work of parliament. A minority government has to approach the opposition with open hands in order to win support. It is not just the SPD-Green coalition that is entering a learning phase, but also the opposition."

"A minority government is regarded here as something irregular. The new SPD-Green coalition has a chance to demonstrate that the irregular can be regular. NRW can send out a signal that in tough situations, difficulties can be overcome."

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"The circumstances are much tougher than the SPD and Greens will admit. The experiment is doomed to failure. Kraft's prospects of pushing through important projects are minimal. Her only realistic option for getting a majority in the state parliament lies with the Left Party. However, they are attached to some fundamentalist notions and are politically unpredictable."

"The CDU and the FDP, on the other hand, can take advantage of Kraft's precarious situation as head of a minority government to deflect from their own failures. They will be doing everything to undermine the SPD-Green government and will refrain from any cooperation with Kraft's project even on policies that reflect their own politics."

"If the SPD-Green minority experiment fails as soon as autumn with the presentation of the 2011 budget, then the SPD and Greens will be on the brink of the abyss in terms of strategy. It won't matter how poorly the CDU/CSU-FDP coalition (in Berlin) continues to govern, they won't be able to offer any alternative. Relations with the Left Party would be so damaged that the chancellery would become unattainable for the SPD."

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung writes:

"Kraft and Löhrmann have a huge opportunity for a new start. The question is whether the first two women to head the most populous state will also have enough courage. Their SPD-Green minority government must not be an interregnum. It won't fail at the hand of the Left Party -- on two conditions. First, the SPD should no longer treat Left Party members as pariahs, as they did during the campaign. And the Left Party has to stick to its commitment to support reforms by the SPD-Greens as long as they do not fundamentally contradict their own political aims. That will not always be easy for them. The NRW Left Party has a strong penchant for verbal radicalism. But there is every indication that they realize how much is at stake."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:

"All the words and gestures of reconciliation that Kraft had for her predecessor and his cabinet could not hide the fact that she is starting her government with an unresolved contradiction. Her repeated invitations to all the parties to work together do not tally with the call before and after the election for fundamental 'political change' in North Rhine-Westphalia. A government whose first act is to revoke important decisions made by the previous CDU-FDP coalition cannot expect those parties to cooperate."

"As a rule, the votes for a majority will only be available from the Left Party. … In practice that will lead to a weakening of the government. Every cabinet decision will have to take the Left Party's position into account."

-- Siobhán Dowling

Televisa destrona a Calderón

• 15-Julio-2010

• Tan importante como el ajuste ministerial consumado ayer es el severo enjuiciamiento político a que sometió Televisa al presidente Calderón, de quien sólo ha recibido canonjías. Aunque aclara que escribió su artículo “a título personal”, es imposible escindir de su matriz a la Fundación Televisa, cuyo presidente Claudio X. González Guajardo dictó una temible sentencia, proviniendo de donde proviene: “Ha terminado la etapa de Felipe Calderón como presidente de México y comenzado la segunda etapa de Felipe Calderón como presidente del PAN. Lástima”. (Reforma, 14 de julio).

  Televisa ha destronado a Calderón. González Guajardo (hijo de Claudio X. González Laporte, hasta hace poco presidente del Consejo Mexicano de Hombres de Negocios) no es un articulista profesional que habitualmente exprese en público sus opiniones. Su escrito de ayer tiene, en consecuencia, el valor de una posición política. Y dado el cargo que ejerce hace ya casi una década, puede válidamente interpretarse que sus dichos no son exclusivamente suyos, sino del poder de que forma parte. Si no fuera así, veríamos en breve término una desautorización que podría llegar hasta al despido. Pero no se llegará a ese extremo.

  El presidente de Fundación Televisa reprocha a Calderón haber sucumbido a su obsesión opositora frente al PRI y empeñarlo todo en impedir que ese partido retorne al poder en 2012. Amén de definiciones lapidarias (“Calderón es un árbol bajo cuya sombra no crece nada”), González Guajardo juzga que “dejar la Presidencia de la República y optar por la presidencia del PAN es muy costoso para México y los mexicanos”. Y pregunta “¿qué va a ser de la administración pública durante los próximos 2 años?”, es decir en el bienio en que según ese examen la república estará acéfala.

  Publicado el mismo día en que se consumó la salida de Fernando Gómez Mont de la Secretaría de Gobernación, González Guajardo lo llama “su mejor hombre (de Calderón) y el único con autonomía en el gabinete”. Fuera del equipo el así elogiado, los que en él permanecen han de merecer el juicio que el alto funcionario de Televisa asesta al paso de Calderón durante “la administración (si así se le puede nombrar) del presidente Fox”, en que el hasta ahora Ejecutivo federal “languidece de puesto en puesto administrativo. No son puestos menores, pero los frutos son magros”.

  Finalmente concluyó esa suerte de cautiverio a que Calderón sometió a Gómez Mont. Desde hace seis meses en que lo hizo faltar a su palabra y con ello perder la confianza de sus interlocutores, el secretario de Gobernación daba creciente muestra de descontento con su encargo. Sin duda se había repetido el dictamen atribuido a quien ocupaba ese puesto bajo Plutarco Elías Calles. Gilberto Valenzuela: un miembro del gabinete deja su cargo cuando el Presidente le pierde la confianza, pero también cuando un secretario pierde confianza en el Presidente.

  En el último trimestre del año pasado, Calderón juzgó prudente aliarse con el PRI para, por un lado, asegurar la aprobación de su política fiscal para 2010 y, por otro, contribuir a que Enrique Peña Nieto no enfrentara problemas en su propia sucesión, y garantizar con su éxito en ella el que tendría en la presidencial. Sin duda en nombre de Calderón (porque de no ser así su renuncia no habría demorado seis meses, sino que habría sido fulminante, inmediata) Gómez Mont firmó como testigo de honor, en su propio despacho, el pacto suscrito entre Beatriz Paredes y César Nava para asegurarse de que el PAN no se aliaría con un partido de ideología antagónica en los comicios mexiquenses de julio de 2011.

  Pero como el PRI regateó apoyo al impuesto para combatir la pobreza, y/o porque Calderón mudó de parecer respecto de con quién sería más conveniente forjar alianzas, Calderón facultó a Nava a olvidarse del pacto firmado e iniciar pláticas con el PRD para construir las coaliciones que participaron en los comicios del 4 de julio con los resultados conocidos, que en amplia medida debilitaron al PRI y diluyeron la imagen de que nada lo detendría para retornar a Los Pinos dentro de dos años, en la persona del gobernador Peña Nieto.

  Desde entonces los actos de Gómez Mont estaban inficionados por el virus de la desconfianza, pues sus interlocutores ignoraban si a la postre lo que acordaran con él valdría o podía ser rectificado. Ya en la recta final de su desempeño parece que se resolvió a precipitar su propia salida. Aprovechó la displicencia de Calderón respecto del llamado que tuvo aires de trascendencia y luego se redujo a la trivialidad, sobre el diálogo para la unidad nacional frente a la inseguridad, y tomó el cabo suelto y pretendió dar cuerpo a la convocatoria vagamente formulada por el Presidente.

  En su última hora en el gobierno Calderón le reprochó sibilinamente haberlo hecho, pues al definir las tareas del sucesor de Gómez Mont, precisó que la nueva invitación al diálogo se haría “en su nombre y representación”, como si la de Gómez Mont no hubiera sido hecha con esas características. En su ajuste ministerial de ayer Calderón dio muestra insólita de revisión de sus propios actos: hizo retornar a la Oficina de la Presidencia a Gerardo Ruiz Mateos, a quien en mal momento había nombrado secretario de Economía, y despidió de aquella oficina a Patricia Flores Elizondo, quien creyó que el cargo implicaba funciones de alta política (del modo en que lo ejercieron José Córdoba y Juan Camilo Mouriño) en vez de realizar únicamente tareas administrativas.

  Cajón de sastre

  Anoche fue despedido, en cierto modo oficialmente, de su larga labor en Radio Educación el locutor y sobre todo animador de emisiones y proyectos Eugenio Sánchez Aldana. El programa dominical que dirigía, “El Chahuiztle”, llegó a su fin el 4 de julio, merced a la decisión de Sánchez Aldana de pedir su retiro voluntario de esa estación de la SEP. Nacido el 12 de diciembre de hace 73 años en Nopala, Hidalgo, se convirtió en una de las voces emblemáticas de Radio Educación, como lo fue Emilio Ebergenyi y como lo es todavía María Eugenia, Maru Pulido. Salaz y escatológico cuando la ocasión lo permite, el locutor hidalguense hizo escuela en el sentido estricto de la palabra pues ha enseñado su oficio a no pocos seguidores. Ayer le importó hacer saber que se fue por decisión propia, hacia nuevos proyectos.

  miguelangel@granadoschapa.com

  
  

Financial Bill Is Set to Pass After Clearing Senate Hurdle

Mary F. Calvert for The New York Times

Senators Benjamin L. Cardin, left, and Jack Reed arrived at a news conference on Thursday after the cloture vote on financial reform.

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

Published: July 15, 2010

WASHINGTON — A broad overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system, intended to address the causes of the 2008 economic crisis and rewrite the rules for a more complex — and mistrustful — era on Wall Street, cleared one last procedural hurdle in the Senate on Thursday as it headed for final Congressional approval later in the day.

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Senator Christopher J. Dodd, right, and Representative Barney Frank, shown in May, are the chief authors of the bill mandating a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system.

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The vote was 60 to 38, with just three centrist Republicans from the Northeast joining with the Democrats in voting to advance the legislation. One Democrat, Senator Russ Feingoldof Wisconsin, voted against the bill, saying it was still not tough enough. Senator Michael D. Crapo, Republican of Idaho, did not vote, and one seat — which was held by Senator Robert C. Byrd, who died last month — is vacant.

With the Senate poised to send the bill to President Obamafor his signature, the White House was already planning a ceremony — sometime next week — to mark completion of another landmark piece of legislation, following the enactment of the historic health care bill in March and last year’s major economic stimulus program.

The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said that the financial overhaul would be an achievement that Democrats would promote in the fall elections. “We cannot continue to operate using the same rules that got us into this recession. I think this will be a vote Democrats will talk about through November.”

But like those other laws, the passage of a new regulatory regime hardly guarantees it will be effective. And, despite lingering public anger at Wall Street, the political implications for this year’s hotly contested midterm elections are far from certain. House and Senate Republicans voted resoundingly, and confidently, against it.

Even Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut and chairman of the banking committee who was a main author of the bill, acknowledged that Americans will probably not know for years — perhaps not until the next financial crisis strikes — if the response by Congress this year was sufficient, or falls short despite the best intentions.

“We won’t know the full results of what we have done until the very institutions we have created, the regulations we have suggested and provided for are actually tested,” Mr. Dodd said in a floor speech. “We can’t legislate wisdom or passion. We can’t legislate competency. All we can do is create the structures and hope that good people will be appointed who will attract other good people — people who will make careers and listen and see to it that never again do we go through what we have gone through.”

Passage of the bill would herald the end of more than a generation in which the prevailing posture of Washington toward the financial industry was largely one of hands-off admiration, evidenced by steady deregulation. While the measure does not fully restore the toughest restrictions imposed after the Great Depression, it is a clear turning point, highlighting a new distrust of Wall Street, fear of the increasing complexity of technology-driven markets, and renewed reliance on government to protect the little guy.

The bill would create a council of high-level federal officials, led by the Treasury secretary, to try to detect, and perhaps prevent, systemic dangers to the financial system, and it would give the government new authority to seize and shut down failing financial institutions, by liquidating assets and forcing shareholders and creditors to take losses.

It would create a powerful consumer financial protection bureau, to be housed in theFederal Reserve, and widely expand the regulatory authority of the central bank. It would widen the purview of the Securities and Exchange Commission to strengthen regulation of hedge funds, other private equity firms, and credit rating agencies.

The bill also seeks to curb the most risky behavior on Wall Street, by restricting the ability of banks to invest and trade for their own accounts — a provision known as the Volcker rule, and by creating an extensive regulatory framework for derivatives, the complex financial instruments that were at the heart of the 2008 crisis.

But Republican critics of the legislation said it would prove to be a failure, and they admonished the Democrats for not addressing some of the root causes of the 2008 crisis by not including provisions related to the mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are now effectively owned by the federal government.

“Despite broad agreement on the need for reform, the majority decided it would rather move forward with a partisan bill,” said Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the banking committee.

“The result is a 2,300-page legislative monster, I believe, before us that expands the scope and the power of ineffective bureaucracies,” Mr. Shelby said. “It creates vast new bureaucracies with little accountability and seriously I believe undermines the competitiveness of the American economy. Unfortunately, the bill does very little to make our system safer.”

In a statement to explain his no vote, Mr. Feingold said Washington had produced a bill that would not protect consumers from another economic crisis. “I will not support a bill that fails to adequately protect the people of Wisconsin from the recklessness of Wall Street,” he said.

For most average Americans the impact of the legislation may not be readily apparent, but its far-reaching effects will not be far below the surface. The legislation will impose new rules and restrictions on mortgage lenders, and it will direct the Federal Reserve to set new pricing for interchange fees charged by debit card issuers.

The bill will restrict what many banks can do with their customers’ deposits. Businesses of all sizes, across every sector of the economy, will feel the impact of the rules for derivatives, which are used to hedge against swings in the cost of raw materials, gas and oil prices, and foreign exchange rates.

The legislation has some notable exemptions, including a special exception for the nation’s automobile dealers from oversight by the new consumer financial protection bureau, which otherwise will regulate most consumer lending.

The legislation has some notable exemptions, including a special exception for the nation’s automobile dealers from oversight by the new consumer financial protection bureau, which otherwise will regulate most consumer lending.

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Senate Republicans succeeded in delaying the bill for weeks, drawing out debate on a measure that most of them never intended to support. Ultimately, they pushed final passage until after the Fourth of July recess, partly to thwart Mr. Obama who had hoped to have the bill on his desk before the break.

With months of wrangling over the appropriate response to the financial crisis drawing to a close, there were rhetorical flourishes on both sides of the aisle.

Mr. Reid turned to his home state for a metaphor. “When you go to any of the great casinos across Nevada and put your chips on the table, you’re gambling with your own money,” Mr. Reid said. “You win, you win. And if you lose, you lose. But Wall Street rigged the game. They put our money on the table. When they won, they won big. The jackpots they took home were in the billions. But when they lost — and boy, did they lose big — they came crying to the taxpayers for help.”

Mr. Reid added: “Every new day we don’t act, we run the risk of it happening all over again. That’s a gamble, Madame President, I’m not willing to take. The bill before us makes sure we don’t have to take that gamble.”

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, spoke just as forcefully against the legislation. “The American people don’t seem to like this government-driven solution to the financial crisis any more than they like the Democrats’ government-driven solution to the nation’s health care crisis,” he said.

Citing a study by the United States Chamber of Commerce, a leading business group, Mr. McConnell said the bill would require 70 new federal regulations through the new consumer financial protection bureau, 11 new regulations through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, 30 new regulations through the Federal Reserve and 205 new regulations through the S.E.C.

“All told, this bill would impose 533 new regulations on individuals and small businesses,” Mr. McConnell said. “That will inevitably lead to the kind of confusion and uncertainty that will make it even harder for struggling businesses to dig themselves out of the recession.”

Mr. Dodd, however, said that Congress had done its utmost.

“The American public expects nothing less of us than to fashion proposals that will minimize great risks to them,” he said. “None of us lost a job or a home in the last two years. None of us has watched our retirement account evaporate overnight. None of us will worry about whether our children can get a higher education. That all happened to the people we represent across the country.”

Mr. Dodd continued: “They are asking that we do our best. They don’t ask for perfection. They know we have not solved every problem and that we are not going to bring back their homes and their jobs; but they expect us to respond to the situation that brought us to the brink of financial disaster. This is our best effort to do so.”