It Makes Your Head Explode

El Dude is back! And he got me all confused with a post about Patrick Henry and Evo "My People Keep Begging Me to Use My Mano Dura But I've Been Really Restrained Even to the Point of Looking a Bit Ineffectual, That Is Until the Rascals in the Medialuna Lost This Last Confrontation and I Dragged Them to the Negotiating Table--Now I've Just Gotta Shorten My Nickname, or at Least Talk to These Crazy Bloggers Who Use It for Parenthetical Remarks!" Morales. So I had to click on the Google a bit to gain insight into who/what/where this "Human Rights Foundation" is that's been blaming the Sept. 11 massacre in Pando on Morales. And it looks like a kooky far-right organization on whose board sits one Armando Valladares, a Cuban exile (and, according to reports, a former "terrorist and Batista henchman") who recently wrote in a Spanish-language publication "that electing Barack Obama as the next U.S. President, would go against 'the values, principles and ideals that have shaped this great nation,' because the Democrat candidate strongly supports abortion, promotes the adoption of children by gay couples and advocates to terrorists." Ah, so the HRF's got some Bush fedeyeen on its board. O.K., but that doesn't mean it's biased, right? Well, it seems this "human rights" organization is only interested in criticizing Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador! (O.K., I exaggerate: It's got a pretty well-timed post on its website about this new tyrant in Chile named Pinochet. Really: Check it out.)

So, Morales is responsible for killing his own supporters, and Colombian president Uribe has clean hands. Got it?

Note to the HRF: "Transparency" is a concept that usually connotes a willingness to freely share information as to who donates money to your organization. A fancy webpage that merely says you are transparent and a PDF of your operating expenses--with no breakdown of contributions--is not "transparent."

Update:Pepito in the comments has even more info: Alek Boyd is associated with the HRF, an on his blog he asks: "Where is Venezuela's Pinochet?" (While not explicitly condoning Pinochet's rule of terror, he does downplay the disappearances when coupled with economic growth.)