Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy IV makes me proud that my legal last name is Lipscomb
President Hugo Chavez and Representative Jose Serrano
You know what the greatest name for a Republican politician ever is? Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy IV. Of course, he goes by Connie Mack, and is a dumb as shit member of congress from Florida. The other day, he got a voice vote passed condemning most of Latin America for having business ties with Iran. One of only about a half dozen decent Democrats in Congress, Jose Serrano, who invited President Hugo Chavez to speak in his district in the Bronx the last time he was in New York, rose to the floor and gave one of those speeches that Democrats usually are too spineless or too corrupt(take your pick)to give. It was an hour long speech too, which is amazing, but I'll not bore you with all of it. Just some highlights.
On The Resolution to Link Iran and Latin American Leftist Movements: "… the same lobby group that has been directing our policy towards Cuba and preventing us from making changes in that policy…now direct[s] our attention towards Latin American leftist leaders because they're friendly to Cuba, and what best way to get at them? To link them to Iran…."
On Motivations: "We have democratically elected leaders in Latin America that have these friendly relations with the Cuban Government. That doesn't matter to us that these folks were elected and re-elected. As long as they are friendly to Cuba, Miami hates them. And as long as Miami hates them, then Congress must hate them too."
On China: "… you don't see a resolution on the House floor condemning Communist China for being involved in Latin America.Why? Because they're a big trading partner of ours. And secondly, let's be honest, because there is no Chinese American lobby in this country influencing how we behave in Congress.
On Democracy: "We have tried to export democracy to Latin America, and I think finally it is working. But we don't like the results. We have tried to export capitalism, and in many ways what they do with each other by trading oil for doctors and oil for technology is capitalism at its best." (it's always great to see someone doing what what Serrano is doing here: using the ideology against itself. Reminds me of Laibach)
On Racism: "… I think it does upset some folks in this country and throughout the hemisphere, that countries that are composed primarily mostly of indigenous people and people of color have now decided to elect people who look like them self, people who come from them. And when they decide to make changes that are very dramatic and, yes, very revolutionary, we get upset because it doesn't serve the corporate interests of a lot of American corporations."
On the Venezuelan coup plotting TV channel RCTV: "Now, listen to me. I don't support most of the policies of President Bush. But if I heard that CBS, ABC, CNN, anyone tomorrow was involved in a coup against President Bush, I would ask that their license not be renewed because that is not freedom of speech. That is violence against the government."
On Rafael Correa: "Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador, elected in free and fair elections January 15 of this year. He is a U.S.-trained economist. What does that mean? That he learned what he knows about what he wants to put in practice in Ecuador in American schools. So shouldn't we be applauding that? Shouldn't we be applauding the fact that he got elected democratically?"
On Evo: "I felt so good when I saw this man take the oath of the presidency dressed in the native dress of his people. I thought it was a great day. Our comments right away were, what is he going to do with the gas industry? Well, he did what we expected. He told some of the gas companies this is a very poor country. We have a lot of natural resources here. We are going to start sharing some of those profits with the people. Oh, he's a communist. We have got to get rid of him. He's a problem."
On Revolution: "We forget that this great system we have here was created through a revolution against the British. But we were the last ones to use that word in a way that we liked it. Now anybody who calls himself a revolutionary we get upset about."
On the Venezuelan Opposition: "…during the last elections in Venezuela when the polls indicated that President Chavez was at 62 percent of the vote, one of the New York Times reporters…asked this leader of the opposition, Why do you think he's so popular? And the gentleman said, and this has to be the dumbest statement ever made by a politician in the history of the world, the gentleman said, You would be popular too if you were always building schools and hospitals for the poor. Well, to that I say, what American teenagers taught us to say, duh. I mean, isn't that the reason why you elect people to take care of those in the society who need help amongst others?"
Toward a Better Foreign Policy: For many thousands of people in Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua, Americans are their cousins, their siblings and their children. They can be our greatest allies in the world if we don't continue to push them into the embrace of hostile regimes with foolish resolutions like this one.