VOTER HOTLINE!

contact@democratsabroad.com.ar Get your answer fast!

You're gonna be SO sad...*

But we're gonna try to get you HAPPY! Mark your calendars!

Super Tuesday, the 5th of February, 8pm to whenevah, at TAZZ in Palermo, Armenia 1744, come and join all us yanquis and watch all the election returns on the big screen with a slingbox hookup to a US television station (complete with all those US commercials that you love!)

We've got the whole 3rd floor (2° piso) complete with elevator all to ourselves because of the tremendous efforts of the good people at:
No cover. No minimum. Cash bar. Cash menu (tasty pizzas, Mexican specialities, steak sandwiches!). Pitchers of beer! All in some lovely surroundings that even include a verandah where you can smoke. (Credit Cards Accepted.)

Bring all your Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent buddies and whoever else you wanna turn-on to the US political process that is more interesting this year than ever before. There'll be voters' registration for ANY AND ALL eligible US citizens of whatever political party you belong to.

*...now here is where you are gonna be so very, very sad (so you better listen up.)

*...a lot of you have this crazy idea that you will be able to vote in the 2008 Global Primary via internet, email, or fax. But you are WRONG.

*...I know for a fact, Jack, that there's only 25 of you expats here in Argentina that have actually registered to vote in the 2008 Global Primary (some of my bestest friends have not registered yet.)

*...you have 7 days from now (before midnight January 31) to go to this webpage and register to vote in the first ever worldwide presidential primary. No Joy if you don't go to the webpage.

*...if you don't register on that page, you won't be able to vote in the 2008 Global Primary (Feb 5 thru Feb 12.) Don't git caught wit' yer drawers down.

HOWEVER, if you get yourself registered to vote in the 2008 Global Primary... you'll actually be able to vote from TAZZ in Palermo on February 5th, the night of the big party! That could be some big fun. Imagine... bars open on election day!

Still confused? Don't feel bad. Just send your questions and confoosions to:
md@democratsabroad.com.ar

SEE YOU THERE

Beefy Timebomb...

"It's a way to finish off a herd built up over years by the father and the grandfather, so we're in a serious situation. The lack of supply is a serious matter," rancher and analyst Juan Llauro said in an online interview at Agrositio.com.

"Production isn't increasing, and that's becoming a more and more serious problem. The farmers are fed up and they're going over to soy or sunflowers," he said.

"A Startling Change is Unfolding in the World's Food Markets"

"This is the other oil shock. From India to Indiana, shortages and soaring prices for palm oil, soybean oil and many other types of vegetable oils are the latest, most striking example of a developing global problem: costly food."

Paul Krugman:

Is this what Varsavsky was trying to say? Naah... not much chance of that.

R.I.P. Bobby Fischer

(New York Times) Through July and most of August 1972, the attention of the world was riveted on the Spassky-Fischer match. Americans who didn’t know a Ruy Lopez from a Poisoned Pawn watched a hitherto unknown commentator named Shelby Lyman explain each game on public television. All this was Mr. Fischer’s doing. Bobby Fischer the rebel, the enfant-terrible, the tantrum-thrower, the uncompromising savage of the chess board, had captured the imagination of the world. Because of him, for the first time in the United States, the game, with all its arcana and intimations of nerdiness, was cool. And when it was over, he walked away with a winner’s purse of $250,000, a sum that staggered anyone ever associated with chess. When Mr. Spassky won the world championship, his prize was $1,400.

“That’s really how chess teaching began,” recalled Bruce Pandolfini, whose career as a teacher and writer was launched after he appeared with Mr. Lyman on public television. “Chess teachers didn’t really exist before 1972, not in any real numbers, but people started calling in to PBS, and they gave me a list of names, about 300 people. I charged $15 an hour and I encouraged others to do the same. I went from shelving books at the Strand bookstore to being a well-paid chess teacher.”

(wiki) Unsuccessful World Championship bid (1960-62) In 1960, Fischer tied for first with the young Soviet star Boris Spassky at the strong Mar del Plata tournament in Argentina, with the two well ahead of the rest of the field, scoring 13.5/15. Fischer lost only to Spassky, and this was the start of their relationship, which began on a friendly basis and stayed that way, in spite of Fischer's troubles on the board against Spassky.

Fischer struggled in the subsequent Buenos Aires tournament, finishing with 8.5/19. The tournament was won by Soviet Viktor Korchnoi and Samuel Reshevsky, the many-time U.S. Champion and one of the world's strongest players, each scoring 13/19.

This was the only real failure of Fischer's competitive career.

Martin Varsavsky

This is my full reply to Martin Varsavsky's column in the Huffington Post:

Mr. Varsavsky,

I am a yanqui that emigrated to Argentina more than four years ago.

I take issue with your assertion that Argentina has moved from the "ranks of the developed world to the less developed world." Please do us all a favor and describe what, in your opinion, was "developed" when your opinion of Argentina was higher... and what about Argentina today is "less developed". Without that, we may feel as if we know what you are talking about... but we really don't.

You say that, in the country of your birth, "GDP per capita was higher and better distributed when I was born in the '60s than now." Very true, I believe. But all I can think of saying to that is, "me, too."

Measuring the 2002 "poverty line" is a tricky business with a nation that finally unplugged itself from a 1-to-1 ratio with the US Dollar. By some measures, what you say is true. What measure do you use. Do you recognize any other measures?

"Largest default in human history" is another interesting measure. Argentina has defaulted on its foriegn obligations more than twice in its history.

Most recently, the default has only affected private speculators (and those poor, foreign souls that trusted them.) Even then, the "investors", that had no reason to believe that they would ever receive a return other than a government bailout, protested when Argentina offered them more than 20 cents on the dollar for their folly. Some default, eh? They just don't make capitalists like they did when we were born.

Argentina paid and is paying every dollar the IMF and the World Bank ever loaned them. The big thing is: on top of the repayment, they're not asking for anything more. Believe it or not, the IMF and WB don't like that. We can only guess for ourselves as to why.

Then, after painting such a negative portrait, youre article seems to change color... you seem to credit the "stiffing" of some rather few piratical "welfare-capitalists" with Argentina's dramatic recovery.

Maybe you're just being aplogetic for such a strong showing from "one of the only countries in the world that has moved from the ranks of the developed world to the less developed world."

Argentina's recovery has been due to sound fiscal policy and the fact that after disconnecting from the dollar it became a sound investment.

A sound investment to those who actually invest... rather than those that expect their losses be redeemed by "less developed" nations seeking not to lose access to foreign capital.

But let's not the both of us declare victory just yet. Consumer debt is suddenly skyrocketing in Argentina as money pours in from the exterior pressuring prices with what could be inflation... or just good-old-fashioned price gouging.

Yes, Argentina has much to teach the US. But not from the position of "failed state"

Now, what do you suggest to restore Argentina to it's throne of "a bigger middle-class than all of Latin America combined"? Something that still actually may be true.

Jimmy Carter, US President 1976-1980

Former President Carter expresses dismay at the state of this year's elections and the US in general.

Class Hardens for Argentina's Poor

"For years, it was a common Argentine assumption that a taxi driver's son could become a lawyer, the plumber's daughter a psychoanalyst.

But not any more.

On a recent day, Ms. Tedin looks at the woman caring for her four small children in their rambling home in a gated community outside Buenos Aires and shakes her head sadly. Today, she says, maids' children will be maids."

...and you thought I was kiddin'.

The Associated Press January 1, 2008,
Beef shrinks, grains gain in Argentina
By JEANNETTE NEUMANN
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina