Every once in a while since I’ve been writing this blog I’ve found myself thinking that Peter Roskam isn’t such a bad guy. Misguided perhaps. A nice guy who’s fallen in with bad company (read Republicans). Naive about life outside his wealthy and insulated district. I was wrong to believe this. Peter Roskam is a total ass.

Roskam today voted against a global AIDS relief package that even the morally abject White House had supported. Of the Illinois delegation, only Manzullo joined him in voting against the package.

The bill, if approved by the Senate in its present form, would authorize $50 billion over five years for the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, an ongoing initiative to combat the spread of AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, primarily in Africa, but also in the Caribbean. The bill passed in the House 308-116, with unanimous Democratic support. 78 Republicans joined them including Biggert, Johnson, Kirk, LaHood, Shimkus and Weller. They should be congratulated.

Roskam’s predecessor, arch-conservative Henry Hyde had supported the AIDS initiative in the past, even compromising on provisions restricting funds to family planning organizations, risking the ire of the so-called “pro-life” community.

Apparently the only type of “foreign aid” that Roskam supports is that which our military began providing to the people of Iraq in 2003 and is presently providing to peasants in Colombia through its proxies. Our tax dollars should be spent as the God and the Constitution intends: on corporate welfare and tax breaks for rich folks.

The grave problems that our planet and our civilization is facing over the course of the next few decades requires that we shed ourselves of leaders like Roskam, who work only in the interests of a narrow elite, in favor of men and women who value the good of humanity over destructive nationalism and greed.

In the worst tradition of Republican policy in Central and South America, George Bush is again pushing hard for passage of a Colombia free trade pact, ignoring the ongoing violence against trade unionists and innocent peasants in that country. He called the matter urgent in remarks made as he was about to leave for a visit to the Ukraine yesterday.

Peter Roskam’s friends at the National Association of Manufacturers meanwhile are also pushing hard, urging citizens to contact their legislators in support of the proposed pact:

Roskam, you will recall, has voted the NAM position consistently during his term in office, and he, too, has been pushing for the pact. He journeyed to Colombia early last month to meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and came back proclaiming that everything in Colombia was just fine and that we should go ahead with the free trade agreement with all due speed.

Bush, Roskam and NAM are not telling you the truth. Things are not OK in Colombia.

As documented in a recent story in the LA Times, extrajudicial killings by the Colombian military are on the rise. As a bizarre consequence of pressure by the Bush administration to show progress in it’s fight against leftist guerrillas, poor innocent civilians are being killed and then dressed as guerrillas, to be used as evidence. And this killing is being funded by the U.S. Government in its role as a leading state sponsor of terrorism.

Violence also continues against trade unionists and human rights activists, even being spurred on by advisers close to Uribe. 4 unionists were murdered early in March, just after Roskam’s return from the country. In years past, American corporations such as Drummond Co., Coca-Cola, and Chiquita have been linked to such anti-union violence. And it is on behalf of corporations such as these that Roskam and Bush are pushing the free trade pact.

Illinois unionists, especially, should be horrified to know that their tax dollars are funding violence against their brothers and sisters in Colombia. I urge all my readers to contact Peter Roskam and demand an end to U.S. funding to the Colombian military and the rejection of the proposed trade agreement while violence continues. You may reach his office in Bloomingdale at (630) 893-9670 or in Washington at (202) 225-4561.

I would be very interested to hear from Jill Morgenthaler her thoughts on this grave issue.

This is a video about the March 6th protest against paramilitary violence: