Greg Grandin has a short blog post re Haiti in The Nation

[EFerrari]

Democracy There, Democracy Here
Greg Grandin
February 4, 2011

A lot’s been happening regarding the fallout from Haiti’s flawed November presidential election—which has shaped up to be a sequel to the Bush-backed 2004 coup that drove president Jean-Bertrand Aristide from office—and I’ve been meaning to write a longer post on the topic, but in the meantime, this interview run at the Council on Foreign Relations with Jacques-Philippe Piverger, the director of something called PineBridge Investments, gives a crisp snapshot of the Washington/Wall Street/Haitian elite attitude toward democracy.

Exiled president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, living in South Africa since 2004, also wants to come home. How worried are people about Aristide's return? What could be the political impact?

It would be destabilizing since there's a large faction of the population that would potentially be supportive of him being in the government.

As the great historian/musician/songwriter Ned Sublette, who forwarded me the interview, puts it, “Can't have that, can we?”

As the world’s attention fixes on Egypt and its remarkable democratic revolt, here in the Western Hemisphere there’s been much machination on the part of the US State Department to make sure democracy remains contained in Haiti. On Thursday, Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) picked the former first lady Mirlande Manigat and musician Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly to advance to the March 20 runoff, even though they only received a combined 11 percent of the vote in the first round. There are many critics, including the Congressional Black Caucus, though the story is largely ignored in the United States. Congresswoman Maxine Waters said the US, Canada and France—three countries active in the overthrow of Aristide—used their “tremendous power and influence to determine the outcome of the first round'' and denied Haitians “the opportunity to express their will.”

http://www.thenation.com/blog/158308/democracy-there-democracy-here

[Peace Patriot]

1. Democracy has been our Corporate Rulers'/War Profiteers' worst nightmare.

How to get rid of it here, in the "land of the free, home of the brave" (hard ferret to kill, keeps popping back up)?

Buy up all the news/opinion media into five Billionaires' fiefdoms, destroy journalism and lie, lie, lie, in every way imaginable, including NOT covering important U.S. anti-democracy activities involving billions of taxpayer dollars and billions in potential corporate looting.*

Bloat the system with mountains of filthy steaming cash. And if that doesn't work, if most voters still want fairness and oppose unjust war...

Spread privatized, corporate 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines like a plague all over the land, using $3.9 billion+ of the taxpayers' own money (heh-heh, hoist democracy on its own petard) with virtually no audit/recount controls. Combine two corps into one (Diebold/ES&S - 80% monopoly) - one button control.

How to get rid of it elsewhere?

Fund rightwing/fascist groups, causes and politicians wherever democracy most threatens to prevail (again, using handy U.S. taxpayer funds). (Billions to Latin American fascists, for instance.)

Militarize and brutalize society wherever governments can be bribed, bullied or bludgeoned into welcoming the U.S. "war on drugs" (more billions paid for by you and me). (Colombia, Honduras, Mexico...too many blood-drenched places to name and the cocaine/heroin just keep on flowing.)

Militarize and brutalize the entire world with the U.S. "war on terror" (how to get rid of human and civil rights everywhere--the Geneva Conventions, the U.N. charter, the U.S. Constitution--you name it, it's gone). (Trillions of U.S. taxpayer dollars.)

And then there are...

CIA/NSA/DEA/FBI (et al)-engineered coups, assassinations, "dirty tricks," black ops, disinformation, kidnapping/torture, vast spying and direct covert control of key "players." (Unknown vast amounts of U.S. taxpayer money.)

Call all of this "promoting democracy." Use democracy to implode democracy.


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*As the world’s attention fixes on Egypt and its remarkable democratic revolt, here in the Western Hemisphere there’s been much machination on the part of the US State Department to make sure democracy remains contained in Haiti. On Thursday, Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) picked the former first lady Mirlande Manigat and musician Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly to advance to the March 20 runoff, even though they only received a combined 11 percent of the vote in the first round. There are many critics, including the Congressional Black Caucus, though the story is largely ignored in the United States. Congresswoman Maxine Waters said the US, Canada and France—three countries active in the overthrow of Aristide—used their “tremendous power and influence to determine the outcome of the first round'' and denied Haitians “the opportunity to express their will.” --from the OP