Wildly Interesting Books

  • Adam's Task by Vicki Hearne
  • Anything by Colin Cotterill
  • Auguries of Innocence by Patti Smith
  • Big Box Swindle by Stacy Mitchell
  • Darwin: A Life in Poems by Ruth Padel
  • Gehry Draws
  • Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker
  • Out of Our Heads by Ava Noe
  • Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design, Mannerisms, Quirks and Conceits
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larrson
  • The God of Small Things by Arundahti Roy
  • The Long Fall by Walter Mosely
  • The Martin Beck Series by Maj Sjowall and Per Waloo
  • The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
  • The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank
  • Vermeeer in Bosnia by Lawrence Weschler

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Oh That Rafael Correa, What a Card!!!

Ecuador wants military base in Miami
Mon Oct 22, 2007By Phil StewartNAPLES (Reuters) -

Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said Washington must let him open a military base in Miami if the United States wants to keep using an air base on Ecuador's Pacific coast. Correa has refused to renew Washington's lease on the Manta air base, set to expire in 2009. U.S. officials say it is vital for counter-narcotics surveillance operations on Pacific drug-running routes."We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorean base," Correa said in an interview during a trip to Italy."If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States." The U.S. embassy to Ecuador says on its Web site that anti-narcotics flights from Manta gathered information behind more than 60 percent of illegal drug seizures on the high seas of the Eastern Pacific last year.It offers a fact-sheet on the base at: http://ecuador.usembassy.gov/topics_of_interest/manta-fol.htmlCorrea, a popular leftist economist, had promised to cut off his arm before extending the lease that ends in 2009 and has called U.S. President George W. Bush a "dimwit".But Correa, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, told Reuters he believed relations with the United States were "excellent" despite the base closing. He rejected the idea that the episode reflected on U.S. ties at all."This is the only North American military base in South America," he said."So, then the other South American countries don't have good relations with the United States because they don't have military bases? That doesn't make any sense."

2 comments:

Jim Calandrillo said...

holy hannah. you may just be right about developments concerning s. american leaders! this is a wonderful bit of information. makes you want to move south of the border, way south of the border, doesn't it? and here i am, merely pre-occupied with bearded ladies.

Anonymous said...

I like the idea of an Ecuadorean base. This would be a good deal that we should repeat with other countries. It will help the quality of restaurants in naval ports.
Cheers, Tom