Colombian Army investigated for role in 2005 Colombia Peace Community massacre

The wounds from this horrific event were still fresh when we visited in October 2006, and the community was still very much under attack by the armed forces, be they paramilitary, guerrilla, or official army.

The Congress is still considering aid to Colombia and whether to sign a so-called "free trade" agreement with Colombia.

Reuters is reporting that "Colombia plans to buy new helicopters and aircraft and send more troops to counter rebels after approving a $3.7 billion, four-year investment plan to upgrade its military...to consolidate a U.S.-backed crackdown on Marxist rebels. Washington has funneled around $4 billion in mainly military aid to Colombia since 2000, helping key ally President Alvaro Uribe battle the drug trade that partly fuels Latin America's oldest guerrilla war." '

This is bullshit, of course, but it's official bullshit. Taken in the context of the clip below, it doesn't quite add up, now does it? But then, we're not terribly concerned about making good policy sense when the terms "drug war" or "terrorism" come up.

Apparently for now most of this "surge" will be funded by a proposed tax on the wealthy and on companies, but at the same time the Bush administration wants to approve another $3.9 billion over seven years for Colombia. Currently Colombia receives the most US foreign aid of any country outside the middle east. Fortunately for the Colombian populace in the countryside, the people who suffer the most whenever the civil war flares up or moves to a new front, Democrats in Congress are not buying this wholesale due to the recent paramilitary scandal that has put eight Uribe politicians and a former police chief in jail for ties to the Ps. Demobilization hasn't turned out to be all it was cracked up to be...

clipped from www.amnestyusa.org

Amnesty International Welcomes Advances in Investigations Into 2005 Colombia Peace Community Massacre

The Colombian army soldiers who are under investigation reportedly belong to the Alacrán Company of the Counter-Guerrilla Battalion No. 33 of the XVII Brigade. The massacre reportedly occurred in the context of a large military operation in the area.

Amnesty International welcomes news that Colombia's Office of the Attorney General is investigating 69 army soldiers for the killings on February 21, 2005, of eight members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, including community leader, Luis Eduardo Guerra, two children aged 11 and 6, and an 18-month-old infant.

More than 160 members of the Peace Community have been killed or "disappeared" with impunity in the last 10 years. In light of the killings, Amnesty International said the announcement of the investigation into the massacre could represent an important step forward in seeking redress for some of the victims.

To my Reader

I think part of my share of the bounty is just lost. And I kind of like that.

clipped from blindcopy.blogspot.com

The real reason why no one reads your (my) blog.

Ever wonder why the traffic to your blog is so terrible? I too am concerned about increasing my readership, so I decided to gather some information to help me decipher why my traffic sucks.

What I found wasn’t encouraging.

Consider the following facts:

There are approximately 6.5 billion people in the world.

Only 16%of the world’s population (1 billion people) have internet access.

16% of the world’s population is illiterate, which leaves only 840 million readers.

Of that, only 20% of the world’s population speaks English, leaving 168 million readers.

Only 30% of internet users read blogs, leaving 50 million readers.

50 million people, sounds like a lot right? Wrong!

Technorati is currently tracking around 50 million blogs.

That’s pretty simple math, 50 million blogs for 50 million readers.

Therefore, with an average of only 1 reader per blog, then who’s reading your blog?

That’s right, just you. Depressing, ain’t it?

we love our "news!"

3/5 of the most e-mailed stories of the day from the AJC are sports-related. I'm just saying.

1 of the 5 is celebrity gossip, and one is traffic-related -- not surprisingly since all of a sudden "traffic" and "congestion" are top news-getters in Atlanta nearly every day.

• Georgia player's mom killed; fiancé arrested
• Kerney set to become a free agent
• Traffic problems expected Saturday
• Former NBA Star Dennis Johnson Dies
• Blogger Sued Over Topless Aniston Photo

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Have you ever noticed how everything is clearer under water? I wish my shower could last all day. It's where I get my best ideas, feel most creative, can accomplish any and everything. Then I turn off the spigot, and the energy turns off with it. Spirals down the drain. My only consolation is that the plumbing in this old shack is horrid. It's all probably still in there, somewhere.

Midterms are next week, thus the extremely rare blog post. Yesterday the army finally cleared "Private Presley's" crap from the driveway. What passes for a big day in my life...

This week I'm mildly obsessed with personality types according to the Jung-based Myers-Briggs test. Slim there picked up a book we're both reading called "Do What You Are" that is supposed to help you pick a fulfilling career based on your type. I think over time I've gone back and forth between and INFP ("the idealist") and an ENFP ("the inspirer") -- it's pretty revealing stuff for reeking slightly of pop pysch. What are you? Take the test here.