Al Giordano from The Field has posted a full article on HuffPo http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-giordano/us-secretary-of-state-a-c_b_145539.html presenting his arguments against Hillary's qualifications to serve as Secretary of State, based on his well-informed perspectives on Human Rights issues in Latin America.

His story includes the last video clip from one of his colleagues, an independent journalist from NY, who was gunned down while filming government forces attacking a citizen blockade. It's hard-watching, but powerful and I urge you to take a peek.

This particular incident happened in 2006.  Senator Clinton has been asked to assist in bringing justice in this case.  Their requests have been ignored.

This is not one unfortunate incident somewhere other than the U.S. that has nothing to do with us.  It's about our policies and how our economic interests pave the way for injustices beyond our borders.  Al puts it this way:

For more than a week prior to the massacre, non-governmental organizations in Chiapas, Mexico, had warned the US State Department of the impending atrocity. But the deal had already been struck with the Mexican regime that in exchange for its acquiescence to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the US would turn a blind eye to all matters of human rights in Mexican territory...

The story of Acteal is not an isolated incident nor aberration. I reported on it then and have reported too many hundreds of such stories since from Mexico and across this hemisphere. I would be happy to answer anybody's questions about it and the details of US complicity in a strategy of terror against peaceful social movements in Mexico and elsewhere that, I'm sure many will agree, has been the policy of the administration of the forty-third president George W. Bush but, as some will be reluctant to accept, was also the policy of the Clinton 42, Bush 41 and Reagan 40 administrations before it.

Yeah, yeah, but that was Bill, we're talking about Hillary, right?  Al argues that there is no indication that Hillary will truly champion human rights, and her performance as a NY Senator strongly suggests otherwise:

And if -- as the mass media seems to agree right now -- US President-elect Barack Obama is about to install someone as the next Secretary of State who has shown zero understanding of, much less passion and action for, human rights in Mexico, Colombia and elsewhere (except in isolated cases where the same mass media has turned a particular case into an international cause celébre), we're going to see more of the same terrible story happen over and over again.

If you can't get somebody to act to defend human rights when she's your own local elected representative, do you really believe that such a person would begin to do so if she suddenly represented the entire country before the world?

Contrary to what Greg seems to be trying to convey on this site, I tend not to believe that Hillary as SOS is a fait accompli.  Many over at Al's blog (http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/secretary-state-cautionary-tale#commentshttp://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/secretary-state-cautionary-tale#comments) are calling in to the transition office and talking to very receptive staff members to express their feelings about the prospects of having Hillary in the SOS position.  Others are responding to Plouffe's email that just went out asking for donations to support the transition efforts, expressing their strong apprehensions about this move.

I encourage the many posters here who have strong doubts about the wisdom of Hillary in this position to express those opinions here and directly to the Obama transition office.  And please visit Al's site, he offers a really unique perspective that is consistently independent of the mainstream - something that is increasingly difficult to find, even on the net.