Bread and Roses by The Rogue

Hillary Clinton's response on the "human rights or national security" question at last week's debate in Las Vegas was downright chilling.

Keep in minder her ardent support for the Iraq War in 2002 (she not only voted to move toward war, but also voted against Sen. Levin's amendment that called for exhausting all peaceful and diplomatic means before war was initiated, her recent vote for the neo-cons' resolution on Iran, and her willingness to keep US troops in Iraq on combat missions as late as 2013.

Here's an excerpt from the NY Times transcript:

MR. BLITZER: You say national security is more important than human rights.Senator Clinton, what do you say?
SEN. CLINTON: "I agree with that completely. I mean the first obligation of the president of the United States is to protect and defend the United States of America. That doesn't mean that it is to the exclusion of other interests."

Clinton tried to soften this with a pro forma, CYA statement: "And there's absolutely a connection between a democratic regime and heightened security for the United States."

But this provides little reassurance given her voting record and public statements.

Hillary Clinton supported aggressive (and illegal) military intervention by the US in Iraq (which she still hasn't repudiated.

She is also surrounded by people like her chief advisor Mark Penn (whose PR firm Hill & Knowlton represented Blackwater USA and the government of Colombia, notorious for letting right-wing death squads operate with virtu.

While it is not totally clear what role will be played by James Carville, long-time advisor to both Clintons (and supposedly neutral commentator on CNN following last Thursday's debate) keep in mind that he has collected big money from the anti-democratic coalition of big business and wealthy whites who sought to depose Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and also provided advice to "Goni," the highly unpopular champion of privatization in Bolivia. Demonstrations against the privatization of vital services like water resulted in mass slaughters by police and government forces, heightening public outrage against Goni's regime. (Rachel Boynton's film on Carville and Paul Begala's consulting firm, "Our Brand is Crisis," fills in a lot of this information.)

Finally, Clinton backs the US-Peru trade agreement that enshrines corporate power over democratically-derived legislation, as with NAFTA which allows corporations to sue governments if a law prevents them from making the maximum possible profit. (Clinton stumbled when asked about NAFTA, finding it hard to criticize except to say "it did not deliver on what we had hoped it would." her commitment to human rights and democracy in shaping US foreign policy is highly suspect.