Editorials: We're dealing with a dangerous maniac, and The GOP's strange complaint

In his zeal to smash organized labor and the environmentalist movement and to control press coverage of himself and his actions, President Martinelli imprisoned a 70-year-old former reporter for a defunct small weekly who had been running an online journal, over a story written years ago about a develpment in a national park; then he detained and seized the passport of a Spaniard and permanent resident of Panama who writes (often scathingly of Martinelli) for La Prensa, giving several conflicting and untrue versions of why; then he had a photojournalist for El Panama America --- the one broadsheet daily that steadily supports the president's policies --- arrested, strip-searched and humiliated for covering the arrests of striking construction union members. Notice: he went from attacking the fringe, to attacking his critic in the mainstream, to attacking his friends.

Against the advice of Panama's business leaders, Martinelli jammed through the "Chorizo Law," which contained, among other things, a series of anti-labor provisons. His labor minister --- who was recruited out of the defense team for the David Murcia Guzman money laundering gang by the president who received $800,000 from the convicted racketeer who's now facing drug money laundering charges in the USA --- told employers not to deduct union dues from the paychecks of employees who had that in their union contracts. Revoke one part of a labor contract and you've revoked the whole thing, so naturally unions took the occasion to put all issues back on the table for new contract negotiations. Strikes ensued, as did labor and management negotiations to resolve the issues. So said labor minister fined businesses that had stopped deducting union dues, while on the other hand the president had the police move in to suppress strikes, arrest union leaders, and shoot those who resisted. The first person whom Martinelli's cops shot to death, it turned out, was Antonio Smith, a young banana workers' union member and member of President Martinelli's Cambio Democratico party, who had helped to deliver the Changuinola vote to Martinelli in 2009. Notice: starting from a visceral hatred of organized labor, Martinelli provoked businesses into some foolish labor relations practices, then turned on the businesses that were trying to mend the damage that his advice had caused, then ordered the police to kill people in Changuinola, starting with one of his own supporters.

From day one of his administration, Martinelli has exhibited wildly erratic behavior, which time and again has made him backtrack from decisions that were made on impulse rather than after careful consideration.

It was that way when he decided to withdraw from the Central American Parliament without taking into account the notice provisions imposed by international law.

It was that way when he implemented the $100 stipend for those 70 and over without a pension without having considered that there were millionaires that qualified. Then the president declared means testing without considering the costs and staffing requirements to implement means testing, so he had to delay his policy's implementation.

It was that way when he alleged a bizarre plot in which he was to have been kidnapped and held for ransom, charges for which there seems to be very little proof but which served as the basis for his switch from US to Israeli security advisors.

It was that way when he went to Jerusalem and made ill-considered declarations about Israel's sovereignty over the holy city.

It was that way when, when his cousins and the former treasurer and Central American Parliament deputy of his Cambio Democratico party were jailed in Mexico as money launderers for the ultra-vicious Beltran Leyva Cartel, his administration denied the familial relationship with one cousin and misrepresented the political role of the other. Both of these denials were then quickly and easily shown to be spurious.

It was that way when he announced a lawsuit in a Costa Rican court on the grounds that a Costa Rican online journalist's purported allegations about an Israeli role in canal security puts the Panama Canal at risk. Then he realized that not only had he mischaracterized the journalist's broadcast remarks and could not prove that central part of his case, but also that if the case did go to trial it would mean discussing Panama's most sensitive national security secrets in a foreign court. Thus as an exit strategy the president began a silly feud with Costa Rica's top prosecutor, itself replete with all manner of hasty and false accusations.

Now, with Law 30, President Martinelli has institutionialized his wild impulses. As in, eliminating environmental impact studies for government projects and those private projects whose promoters have the political connections to get the cabinet to declare them "in the social interest." As in, effective impunity for police officers who commit crimes while on duty. As in, no consideration of the effects that the derogation of environmental laws may have on the funding of Panamanian projects by international lenders. As in, no consideration of the effects of his anti-labor measures on sensitive international trade negotiations.

This is serious, folks. It's no longer a clever campaign slogan. It's not a matter of a creative "outside of the box" management style. It's nothing like a wild and crazy guy telling off-beat jokes at a party. It's about a madman waving a gun at us, at his foes and friends alike.

Annoying inflation and a strange inclusion in the GOP litany

The Obama administration, like the Bush and Clinton administrations before it, has announced increases in the fees that US citizens living abroad, and non-citizens who want to visit the United States, must pay for consular services. Even if we might be annoyed, nobody should be surprised.

Although there is a widespread culture of denial among Americans, the people of the United States and every level of their government are stuck in a profound and unprecedented economic crisis. A couple of costly, open-ended wars without clearly defined aims severely aggravate the crisis at the federal level, but the fundamental problem is that the United States has exported much of its industry and its political leaders are trying to meet the expectations of people who think that a nation can live well while not actually producing very much.

Thus the government is in the red, its services are being cut back, and fees for those services that are being maintained are being raised. It's as simple as that.

Ah, but the Republicans would have the American people blame Barack Obama for the problems he inherited as well as for things that he has done and for a series of fantasies that originated in the minds of Tea Party fanatics but don't exist in the real world. So Republicans Abroad sent out an email to Americans living overseas, complaining across the board about the consular fee increases. As an illustration of what they're complaining about, they appended a list of the fee changes.

Among those is a $450 charge for renouncing one's US citizenship before an American consul.

Oh, boo hoo --- all you patriotic American voters should be shocked and outraged, and vote Republican, because people who want to invoke the legal procedures to renounce their US citizenship will have to pay for that service.

When called on it, local Republicans were outraged. The conduit who posted that Republicans Abroad message in a local English-language email discussion group responded by saying that "I do not know one that has ever 'renounced' his citizenship."

Lately the US government does publish lists of those who renounce their citizenship, but historically the US Embassy has treated questions of naturalization and renunciation as private matters that they will not discuss. But then, those of us who have been around for awhile will recall a movement, a flash in the pan mainly among Panama Canal pilots, to renounce US citizenship for tax purposes that was promoted by an attorney, one Michael Pierce. We will recall the defense of imprisoned pyramid scheme operator, money launderer and self-styled "offshore asset protection guru" Marc M. Harris, who said that the US courts had no jurisdiction over him because he had renounced his American citizenship. People who more recently arrived on the isthmus may remember unconfirmed reports that one Bosco Vallarino had gone to the US consulate to renounce his American citizenship, and the mayor's own contradictory claims that he had given up his US citizenship and that he had not. At least at one time in their lives, these people all ran in Republican social circles. None were ever seen at a Democrats Abroad gathering.

There once was a Democrat who served but a fraction of a term in the White House, who advised: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you --- ask what you can do for your country."

editorial