One time president of Panama, Noriega was extradited to France from the US yesterday. Noriega was kidnapped from Panama after the US attacked the country completely without provocation on the excuse that it was exporting drugs to the US. Then against international law Noriega, a sitting head of state, was tried and imprisoned for twenty years. Yesterday he was extradited to France on some allegation of money laundering more than two decades ago. France is the country where Baby Doc Duvallier of Haiti took refuge with his stolen millions and from where Ayatollah Khomeni launched his victorious campaign against the Shah of Iran. Thus the US gives the impression of not having any respect for any rule or statute. Outsiders get the same impression at the behavior of the Republicans who show mindless opposition to anything proposed by President Obama. First they opposed healthcare reforms and yesterday they stopped the debate on the financial reform bill. It was a Republican President, Ronald Reagan whose decontrol of financial institutions, helped by another Republican President, George Bush's tax refund that created the financial crisis. Before the elections of 2008 Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and were responsible for the oversight of the financial institutions in which they failed miserably. Apparently this is because of heavy lobbying by the shameless banks who are spending a lot of money. This seems to show that US lawmakers are up for sale to the highest bidder. Yet this is the country that stridently preaches democracy and exports regime change.