President Bush announced April 7 that he is sending the Colombia free trade agreement to Congress, and called for its speedy ratification, saying, "The need for this agreement is too urgent." Legislators will have 90 business days to approve or reject the FTA. Bush conceded the pact could have some harmful effects at home, but he said the benefits would far outweigh them. The US imports grains, cotton and soybeans from Colombia, much of it duty-free under temporary accords already in place. But US exports to Colombia remain subject to tariffs. "I think it makes sense to remedy this situation," Bush said. "It's time to level the playing field." Trade between the US and Colombia amounted to about $18 billion in 2007. (NYT, April 7)

Mexican President Felipe Calderón's government has submitted a bill to the Senate that would give the state oil company Pemex greater flexibility to hire outside subcontractors and seek private investment. Energy Minister Jordy Herrera denied the bill will propose changes to the constitution, which reserves the ownership of oil resources to the state. However, the move comes just as Chevron has announced proposals to tap Mexico's oil and natural gas reserves. Chevron's Latin American operations chief Ali Moshiri said the company wants to make Mexico "a big part of our portfolio." (Houston Chronicle, April 8)

Tompkins Square anarchists ride again

New York Press, AM New York, The Villager/Downtown Express and the NO! Art blog were among the media that turned out for a press conference on the steps of New York's City Hall April 3, where a grizzled and aging bunch of veterans of the 1988 police riot in the Lower East Side's Tompkins Square Park—including your intrepid blogger—spoke out against the imminent installation of security video cameras in the once-embattled park.

We've said it before, but here we go again. The Conspiracy Industry plays into the very hands of the police state it ostensibly opposes. The latest blog fodder from Raw Story, April 1, emphasis added, links not included:

Mukasey hints US had attack warning before 9/11
When Attorney General Mukasey delivered a speech last week demanding that Congress grant the president warrantless eavesdropping powers and telecom immunity, the question and answer session afterwards included one extraordinary but little-noticed claim.

Sri Lankan cabinet minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle was among 12 people killed outside Colombo April 6 in a blast blamed on a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber. At least 90 people were wounded in the explosion minutes before the start of a traditional marathon race held as part of a Hindu new year celebration at Waliweriy. Indo-Asian News Service called the event "Hindu-Sinhala," as it was attended by minority Hindu members of the mostly Buddhist ethnic Sinhalese majority on the island. Marathon gold medallist K.A. Karunaratne was also among the dead. (IANS, April 6)

Tibetan activists—chanting "Reject China's bloody torch," "Olympics in China, torture in Tibet" and "We will never give up"—are gathering daily at midday at San Francisco's Civic Center in what has essentially become a protest campaign to demand their right to protest. With the Olympic torch set to arrive in the city in less than two weeks, Mayor Gavin Newsom (while paying requisite lip service to the First Amendment) is considering shunting protesters away from the torch route to isolated "free speech zones"—which the Bay Guardian rightly calls "an oxymoron if there ever was one."

The latest escalation in the ongoing struggle for Basra is affecting global oil prices. As news broke that one of Iraq's main oil export pipelines from Basra exploded, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city that provides 80% of the government's revenue, oil prices jumped more than $1 a barrel, Reuters reported. Jamal Hamed al-Fraih, spokesman for the South Oil Company, said the stricken pipeline was feeding crude to one of the main refineries in the province, at Shuaiba—for internal consumption. "Oil exports are still flowing but they are less than a few days ago," he said adding that oil exports from Basra, Iraq's main outlet, had been averaging 1.5 million barrels a day before the new outbreak of fighting. Prices leveled off after his clarification.

Even we are frankly astonished by the depth of cynicism to which the Wall Street Journal has sunk this time. A March 25 editorial, entitled "A FARC Fan's Notes," touts (dubious) claims that the computer recovered from Colombia's (illegal) March 1 raid on a FARC guerilla camp in Ecuadoran territory contained communication to rebel leaders from a "go-between" linked to Rep. James McGovern. The respectfully diplomatic rhetoric of the communication is de rigeur for the obvious intent behind the missives—getting hostages freed. Yet the WSJ uses this to impugn McGovern's opposition to the pending US-Colombia free trade agreement—as if there were no legitimate reasons to oppose it, and the Massachusetts Democrat can only be a dupe of the narco-terrorist conspiracy to bring down democracy in the Western Hemisphere. Here is the text of this exercise in disingenuous propaganda: