Many of you no doubt saw earlier diaries (example) quoting Rick Davis, John McCain's campaign manager, trying to immaturely insult Barack Obama as some la-di-da weirdo fancy pants elitist freak:

...Only a celebrity of Barack Obama's magnitude could attract 200,000 fans in Berlin who gathered for the mere opportunity to be in his presence. These are not supporters or even voters, but fans fawning over The One. Only celebrities like Barack Obama go to the gym three times a day, demand "MET-RX chocolate roasted-peanut protein bars and bottles of a hard-to-find organic brew -- Black Forest Berry Honest Tea" and worry about the price of arugula...

But look at that quote, and notice how the McCain Republicans are targeting the very entrepreneurs and successful businesses that you'd think they'd want to praise, and instead they mock them as elitist weirdos:

The main newspaper of the Atlanta metropolitan area, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, led this morning with a huge, prominent, and lead editorial, signed by Jay Bookman for the editorial board.

Bush asserts a king's prerogative
With showdown over Iraq looming, president courts constitutional crisis
— Jay Bookman, for the editorial board

In theory, President Bush is sworn to faithfully execute the laws of the United States. In reality, he has treated federal law as a menu from which he picks and chooses those laws he likes, while ignoring those that do not suit his taste.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial board today published a harsh condemnation of the policies which have led to the results first highlighted by the NYT in discussing the work of economic analysts that the top 300,000 wealthiest Americans had an income (in 2005) nearly equal to that of the bottom 150 MILLION AMERICANS.

You know, when you have Presidents of friggin' Federal Reserve Banks worried about the US' wealth concentration versus, oh, third world nations, Houston, you might have a problem.

Many followers of recent Mexican news have followed closely the high levels of tension developed in the southwestern state of Oaxaca, where a protest movement APPO has demanded the removal of the Governor due to government repression of what began as a fairly common teachers' strike and barricade.

Below I have translated in its entirety an account from the liberal-left daily newspaper La Jornada which follows the account of the murder of a local barricade supporter by two apparently off-duty (and possibly drunken) soldiers, apparently because they didn't want their way blocked by a manned barricade, so they shot him twice in the head from both sides.

And then the victim, bleeding from the head, was taken to a nearby hospital where he was apparently left completely unattended for nine-hours, without even anesthetic.

The article is based on extensive interviews and eye-witness accounts, and the narrative tells you a lot about how tense this situation is.

If you thought Dick Cheney's secret Energy Task Force meetings were fun, why not secret meetings between US, Mexican, and Canadian governmental, military, and business leaders -- especially oil company executives from 12-14 September in an isolated Canadian mountain resort?

..."among the list of attendees were prominent figures such as the US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld;  Mexico's Secretary of Public Security, Eduardo Medina Mora;  and General Rick Hilliers, Chief of Canadian Forces."..."High executives from the military- industrial complex and from oil companies were present in the forum, including executives of Lockheed Martin, Chevron, Petroleos Mexicanos, Suncor Energy" reported Michel Chossudovsky, a professor at the University of Ottawa..."There were no journalists, there were no press releases, nor bulletins to inform the public, and there in fact was an information shutdown on the part of the news media.  The meeting program was as guarded as if it were a State secret."

Irma Sandoval & John Ackerman, two academics working with the Institute for Social Research and the Institute for Legal Research (respectively) make an extreme longshot request that not only should Mexican authorities choose to save rather than destroy this past election's ballots (which is a normal outcome), it should permit a recount by non-governmental organizations:

...the electoral authorities have needlessly encouraged suspicions about Calderon's victory. The Federal Electoral Tribunal...failed to disclose details of its partial recount, which showed widespread irregularities in the computation of the votes. And even though it condemned illegal campaign advertisements and the intervention of President Vicente Fox, it failed to assess their overall impact. In an election decided by only 230,000 votes out of 41 million cast, even small discrepancies could have made a big difference...  The Florida ballots from the 2000 U.S. presidential elections were not destroyed... Ohio delayed the destruction of its presidential ballots from 2004 to allow further study of irregularities... Mexicans deserve no less.

Most of us here on MexiKos have had our attention riveted to what's been going on in Mexico since the presidential elections argued to have been tainted by fraud and manipulation -- most recently including a citizen's convention in the downtown which 'elected' the liberal-left opposition's candidate as the "Legitimate President".  But some of you might assume that it's just a nutty few diarists like us malcontents.  Believe it or not, a few genuine edumacated folks find something of value in these activities as well.

Laura Carlsen, Mexico City director of the International Relations Center's Americas Program:

...one has to have power to leverage power. Most of the millions who voted a second time for Lopez Obrador on September 16 have, for the most part, only the two feet they stand on for leveraging power. They believe that Calderon's PAN is the party of the rich and powerful. The government-in-resistance is their bid for a voice in a political system that has systematically excluded them.

Forbes, in the guise of Forbes Conferences and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, invited specified Mexican CEO's to a closed conference in the luxurious Four Seasons hotel to celebrate the re-selection of a conservative, 'free market' politician to the Presidency and to plan a "new Mexico" more to their liking:

The Mexican energy sector, controlled by the government, is the object of desire of international capital.  Embracing the end of the formal electoral process and "the reformist spirit of the incoming government", one of the subsidiaries of Forbes, the media consortium of U.S. magnate and politician Steve Forbes, brought together a tight group of businessmen to invite them to "design a new Mexico."... [The forum document] offers its [own] solution to the economic problems of Mexico:  "The solution is to carry out structural reforms, specifically in matters relating to labor, government spending, and energy."..."

It's 'Better Late Than Never' & Pedophilia Trial Day here at MexiKos!  Believe it or not, there are two, count 'em, two separate pedophilia cases rocking the nation.
  In Supreme Court 'Better Late Than Never' Day, the Court carefully ruled in the Presidential election and recount dispute that the solemn role of the Electoral Tribunal was sacred in having the final say in electoral matters, and the Supreme Court should not intervene in such affairs.  Yet the Supreme Court will now intervene in one state's criminal case regarding an accused ring of pedophiles because the governor appears to have violated the rights of the journalist who published the story.
  In the Catholic Church 'Better Late Than Never' Day, the same Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera which has been lecturing us on how all those pesky Lopez Obrador supporters need to pipe down and recognize conservative Felipe Calderon as President, has now been sued in Los Angeles for protecting a pedophile priest who is accused of molesting up to 50 children.

See?  Supply-side "free market" orthodoxy does work!

In the best case scenario, the administration of President Fox and his businessman's democracy will have generated 1 million formal jobs [i.e., listed with regulatory agencies] by the end of the 6 year period [of his presidency], in a period in which about 7 million Mexicans were added to the labor market... Without even considering the shameful historic retrogression in wages, during the "change" [i.e. the end of the 70-year PRI party electoral dictatorship] only 14 of every 100 Mexicans succeeded in finding a job in the formal sector of the economy, independently of the steep deterioration in the quality of those positions.  The rest survive as they are able.

More below on the grand victories of conservative economic thought in Mexico.  Repeat after me: there is NOOOOO reason for divise social activism in Mexico, ALL WILL BE CURED by the activities of Big Business if enough decades are allowed to pass.

Are we going to see a "parallel government" declared today in Mexico?  

Or an organized, mobilized grassroots "civil resistance" to Mexico's rabid supply sider government policies ("neoliberal" in Latin American discussions)?

What, then?

Hundreds of thousands, perhaps over a million, liberal-left activists are today heading toward Mexico City's downtown plaza (the Zócalo) to the National Democracy Convention to declare something.

Energies are up after Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his co-ralliers pressured outgoing President Fox to give the Independence Day speech (the "Grito") not in the Zócalo but in the alternate location of the small albeit historical town of Dolores Hidalgo.

Protesters have inspired a second prominent face-saving retreat by the federal government in Mexico City:

President Vicente Fox backed away from another showdown with Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Thursday, announcing that he wouldn´t hold the annual Independence Day celebration in the capital´s main Zócalo square to avoid protesters... López Obrador and his supporters had vowed to upstage Fox by refusing to take part in Friday´s annual salute of "Viva Mexico!" delivered each year by the president. They are planning to take over the Zócalo for their own celebration, and some had feared clashes if pro-government revelers showed up... Fox will move his ceremony to the small, central town of Dolores Hidalgo, 170 miles (270 kilometers) northwest of Mexico City, where Roman Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo launched the first call for independence from Spain in 1810. The town is located in Fox´s home state of Guanajuato, a bastion of support for his conservative National Action Party (PAN).

Mexican liberal-left activists are gambling their post-electoral organizing on their Saturday's "National Democracy Convention" (Convencion Nacional Democratica) which may draw "a million" delegates from all around the nation.

[O]rganizers of Saturday´s National Democratic Convention geared up for what they claim will be a watershed event... [T]he convention will mark a strategic turning point for the political movement led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who lost the presidency by a slim margin in what his supporters insist was a fraud-marred election... [T]he López Obrador forces will use Saturday´s assembly to launch an ongoing civil resistance or shadow government in opposition to conservative President-elect Felipe Calderón, whom they call a "usurper."... [O]rganizers said they expect more than 1 million volunteer delegates from all 31 states and the Federal District, many of whom were chosen in town hall meetings... [F]ormer López Obrador campaign coordinator Jesús Ortega said Wednesday that almost 800,000 delegates had been registered since the convention was announced on Aug. 19.

People continue to protest in Mexico around charges of electoral fraud and corruption centered on liberal candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador as well as for broader economic change -- are they a group of hangers on to a "3 year old" sore loser as one American columnist suggests?  Are they a dangerous, nation-splitting force for sedition?  Is what they actually need harsher free-market reforms to put them in their places?

Or is there actually the possibility of a national grassroots social movement being founded in Mexico which might prompt the changes so desperately needed?

Below the fold, a few views from US and English-language sources, unfortunately no counter-vailing view from AMLO or the protesters (no time this AM to do any more than this), and how Mexican journalists have faced the most life threats under outgoing President Coca Cola Fox than ever.  Other Mexico news & views comments encouraged.

In the latest issue of the Nation, longtime Mexico based journalist John Ross writes of what has been stirred up around the bitterly fought presidential elections.

For the new president, the task of governance will not be an easy one. The country is divided in half geographically (Calderón won the industrial north, López Obrador the highly indigenous, resource-rich south) and by critical issues of class and race. The breach between the brown underclass and the tiny white elite that Calderón represents will limit his ability to institute the free-market neoliberal policies that his campaign championed... Calderón will have more support outside Mexico than inside...Now that the [the Electoral Court] has confirmed his "victory," Washington and European Union members--like Spain's prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero--are eager to get in on the ground floor of the PEMEX [state owned gigantic oil producer] fire sale and will seek to legitimize Calderón's presidency beyond Mexico's borders.

Not giving up, not going away. More below.

As was becoming more and more predictable, the Electoral Court of Mexico (TEPJF) has declared that conservative Felipe Calderón has complied with constitutional requirements to be declared the next president of Mexico -- thus pretty much leading to his taking office.  Based on initial reports all other complaints (such as business groups' funding ads against liberal coalition candidate Lopez Obrador, supposedly illegal) are being dismissed as well.

Strangely enough, it doesn't look like the protest movement is dying down just yet.  They still proclaim the 16 September "National Democracy Convention" which has been variously viewed as a circus of loony activists which will make noise and have no effect, or as a dangerous rebellion which will declare a parallel government and thus destabilize the nation, or as the launching pad for a grassroots social movement to press for needed reforms such as helping Mexico's large population of desperately poor people -- whom the outgoing President Fox neglected to report on in his last report.  Comment and gloat away below.

In this brief Labor Day edition of Mexico News Roundup, all those concerned might in this topic might wish to prepare their respective internal energies for tomorrow:

The Federal Judicial Authority Electoral Tribunal (TEPJF in Spanish) published Monday the convocation for the magistrates to pronounce a ruling on the final count of the presidential election, and, in such case, the declaration of validity of the election and the president-elect....The Superior Court of the TEPJF will open its public session beginning at 8 am local time.

Informally I submit the song "Quien engaña no gana" from Ojos de Brujo, a Barcelona music collective, as one of the Mexico News Roundup unofficial theme songs.

Below the fold, an editorial from the New Mexico-based International Relations Center.

Political echoes are still being heard from Friday night:

Legislators yelling for a recount and criticizing the extreme security measures surrounding the Congress building in the July 2 vote surrounded the podium on Friday, leaving [outgoing President] Fox -- wearing his presidential sash -- standing at the door of the chambers looking annoyed but resigned and with no choice but to hand in his annual, written report and leave.

Also in the news (at least in Mexico), the liberal US study group CEPR has taken a preliminary look at the partial recount just conducted:

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has found a significant loss of votes for PAN presidential candidate Felipe Calderón in a sample of recounted ballots..."This is inexplicably one-sided, with Calderón losing votes but López Obrador not losing any," said CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot...The result for the whole group of recounted ballot boxes would likely show a similar percentage, since the above ballot box totals were chosen randomly...