This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Foreign Policy

  • Hugo Chavez tries to rebuild macho image

    Now that Spanish King Juan Carlos famously has told Hugo Chavez to shut up, and Saudi King Abdullah has reiterated that same sentiment in more diplomatic terms, Chavez is seeking to inflate his macho image. It’s hard to do when Juan Carlos’ phrase has been reproduced as a popular ringtone, and Venezuelans have taken to erecting the phrase as a symbol of solditarity against Chavez. It sparked such anti-Chavez feelings, that at least two blogs have been shut down in Venezuela, as Kate reported last week.

    He’s also run afowl of the UN’s International Labor Organization;

    The International Labor Organization (ILO) denounced the Venezuelan government on Thursday, accusing it of abusing the rights of business owners to freely organize. At the same time, Colombia was praised for its progress in the protection of labor leaders. Venezuelan authorities rejected the statements, accusing the ILO of manipulating the truth for political reasons.

    In a report released on Wednesday, the U.N. labor agency called on the government of President Hugo Chavez to ensure that business groups can operate “free from violence, pressure, or threats of any kind against leaders and members.” The Venezuelan government was also urged to stop legal proceedings against senior officials of Fedecamaras, Venezuela’s major business chamber.

    So, Chavez easiest and safest target to build his macho image again is, of course, the United States – just like every other thug who knows we don’t strike them for their words and wild gestures. Safely tucked away from dissenters in Iran, Chavez and his little straightman buddy Ahmadinijad traded shots at the US (Reuters link);

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Monday the “empire of the dollar is crashing,” a day after his country and anti-U.S. ally Iran advocated action over the weakening U.S. currency during an OPEC summit in Riyadh.
     
    Chavez, who on Saturday said oil prices could double to $200 per barrel if the United States attacks Iran over its disputed atomic ambitions, spoke to reporters after talks with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

    “Soon we will not talk about dollars because the dollar is falling in value and the empire of the dollar is crashing,” Chavez said in comments translated into Farsi from Spanish.

    “Naturally, by the crash of the dollar, America’s empire will crash,” Chavez said at a joint news conference with Ahmadinejad. The two presidents share the same viewpoint in denouncing U.S. influence in the world.

    Always the gentleman, Chavez charmed reporters at an impromptu news conference(Reuters link);

    Surrounded by a throng of reporters at an OPEC summit in Saudi Arabia, the president, who enjoys the media spotlight and often answers questions at length, excused himself.

    “Look I have to go,” Chavez said in comments aired on Venezuelan state television. “For a while now, I have needed to go to the bathroom and I am going to pee … Do you want me to pee on you?” 

    Real men always talk abut peeing on people, you know. 

    Back in Venezuela, things aren’t looking so good for for the Bolivarian Buffoon (Reuters link);

    Used to trouncing the opposition at the ballot box, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez suddenly faces a new foe for a December referendum on scrapping term limits — high-profile disaffected supporters.
     
    An allied political party, a respected ex-defense minister, governors and a top legislator have all abandoned Chavez’s socialist coalition helping amplify the opposition’s criticism that his plan to revamp the constitution is authoritarian.

    The defections reflect misgivings among Chavez’s majority poor supporters, who still back his oil-financed social development crusade but worry the Cuba ally wants too much power as he brooks little dissent in the OPEC nation.

    “We’ve seen so-called ‘group-think’ develop. In other words, if you do not think like me, you are a traitor, you are with the CIA, you are a coup plotter,” said Ismael Garcia of the Podemos party, which split from Chavez’s self-styled “revolution” over the reform package.

    Polls show the anti-U.S. leader should win the December 2 vote but that it will be due to low opposition turnout, his personal approval ratings and sweeteners in the package such as reducing the workday and expanding social security benefits. 

    So, every time things get dicey at home, Chavez tours the world on his people’s dime. But Lucia writes at Caracas Chronicles that the media shouldn’t count the opposition out yet;

    This December is not last December. Standing in line for milk makes voters cranky. And Chávez is not on the ballot. This is important, because some moderate Chavistas may be willing to vote against the reforms even though they’re not entirely ready to give up on him yet. Chávez’s support outside his hard-core base is due to the misiones. But moderate Chavistas are very wary of extreme Chavismo: they don’t like the divisive rhetoric, the Fidel and Mahmoud love affairs, the spending abroad, the RCTV license cancellation, the violence against the students, the insults to the church. And they don’t like many of the reform proposals, either. The very vocal defections of Baduel and Podemos may underline what they themselves are feeling – this revolution is getting out of control.

    We may have reached a tipping point for this key segment of voters.

    At Venezuelan Politics, Tomas Sancio explains that Chavez’ prediction that the dollar indicates the fall of the United States is pointless blather;

    OK, for those of you who are unaware of the official Venezuelan exchange rate, it is a value pegged to the US Dollar (specifically Bs. 2150), not to the Euro.

    But then world is laughing at Chavez, and for the first time, he’s starting to hear it.

  • Lazy Sunday Links

    I’m fighting off a cold or something and I’m not thinking straight so I’m going to let other people do my thinking for me today;

    Pamela Geller at Atlas Shrugs illustrates that 60s hippies never die in “You went there to kill children, you’re a baby killer”

    Robin at Chickenhawk Express tracks the money that links Murtha and the Haditha investigation here and here.

    Beth of Blue Star Chronicles’ son is still in Baghdad and Sergeant Grumpy just got there recently and is already dealing deadly blows to our enemie’s efforts.

    Michele Malkin has the admission (with audio) from Democrats that S-CHIP is the backdoor way t get universal healthcare past America while we blink.

    Gateway Pundit has a threatening and demeaning letter from Amahdinajad to M. Sarkozy.

    Wild Thing at PC Free Zone has the story on OPEC’s fear of a devalued dollar – they thought the camera was off. Speaking of oil, Junkyard Blog’s SeeDubya writes that Citgo is now funneling oil money to Chavez’ social programs.

    Crotchety Old Bastard answers his email for ANSWER.

    Babalu Blog’s Alberto de la Cruz reports on Chavez’ toe-dipping into extra-Venezuelan military operations.

    I’ll be back later if I can shake this thing.

  • Lining up the sides for a new Cold War

    Last week we were treated to what Frenchmen look like when they’re being nice when M. Sarkozy addressed a joint session of Congress. This week, formerly chilly new prime Minister of Britain, Gordon Brown was caught “doing the Sarkozy” by the Wall Street Journal Editorial staff;

    So Monday night, in his first major speech on foreign policy since moving into 10 Downing Street, Mr. Brown sought to out-Sarkozy the Frenchman. “It is no secret that I am a lifelong admirer of America,” he said in London. “I have no truck with anti-Americanism in Britain or elsewhere in Europe. I believe that our ties with America — founded on values we share — constitute our most important bilateral relationship.” In noting the recent pro-U.S. tilt across the Channel, Mr. Brown said, “It is good for Britain, for Europe and for the wider world that today France and Germany and the European Union are building strong relationships with America.”

    GI Jane wrote yesterday on this blog, that Denmark elected a center-right govenment with Anders Fogh Rasmussen, a staunch Bush supporter at it’s head, and of course Germany has center-right Andrea merkel calling shots for them. So all of our allies are lining up with us again – that’s good, I suppose. Mike’s America says it’s better than the alternative;

    Meanwhile, both Bill and Hillary Clinton continue to insist that America’s standing in the world has been damaged by President Bush and only THEY can restore it!

    Yeah, that’s what we need to restore America’s image: more Europeans making jokes about a stain on a blue dress!

    Fausta says;

    That’s what happens when George W. Bush squanders the good faith of the EUros…

    But I see all of this good news a bit differently - always the cynic, I see an impending disaster. I wrote back in September about the Axis of Ultimate Evil;

    Well, you’ve got Hugo Chavez buying weapons from Russia, drilling oil with China (who is, by the way, drilling oil off the coast of Florida in cahoots with Cuba) and forming alliances with Iran and Nicaragua (not to mention Chavez coming out against boob jobs), Syria getting weapons technology from North Korea.

    […] 

    I’m starting to see a pattern here. This growing alliance is cartoonishly evil – like some kind of alliance of fiends set against the Justice League or Superfriends. Except there isn’t any Justice League or Superfriends – there’s just us. Well…some of us. 

    Well, now we have friends. China and Russia, who are both running a screen for resource-rich and repressive Myanmar government in the United Nations, are now training their militaries together which completes the circle of the alliance of our political and economic competitors.  In fact the AP writes that a US Panel reports Chinese espionage as one of our biggest threats;

    Chinese spying in America represents the greatest threat to U.S. technology, according to a congressional advisory panel report Thursday that recommended lawmakers consider financing counterintelligence efforts meant to stop China from stealing U.S. manufacturing expertise.

    The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission also said in its annual report to Congress that small- and medium-sized U.S. manufacturers, which represent more than half the manufacturing jobs in America, “face the full brunt of China’s unfair trade practices, including currency manipulation and illegal subsidies for Chinese exports.”

    China’s economic policies create a trade relationship that is “severely out of balance” in China’s favor, said the commission, which Congress set up in 2000 to investigate and report on U.S.-China issues.

    With the war in Iraq winding down, the cartoonishly evil axis probably needs to strike at us while we’re trying to catch our breath, and before our own alliance has any real strength. We know that the French are always the friendliest when they’re in trouble – that probably should have been my first hint.

  • Chavismo dealt another blow and shuts up VZ blogger

    At Babalu Blog, Gusano reports the latest blow to Hugo Chavez’ attempts to spread his own special brand of socialism in the lower hemisphere;

    Chavez, who knows how to buy friends and influence people, has offered to use some of “his” , I mean Venezuelan, oil money to buy, I mean help, Chilean socialist president Michelle Bachalet regain her declining popularity by subsidizing the construction of a new transportation program called Transantiago. The implementation of the system has been botched and overbudget, leading to street demonstrations in Santiago.

    The Bachalet administration emphatically refused Chavez’s offer to make Chile one of his “client states”:

    “We are not used to outsiders telling us what we have to do”

    A slightly more diplomatic, yet just as effective ¿por que no te callas?

    A slightly more diplomatic, yet just as effective ¿por que no te callas?Hugo, you see is the “brains” behind 21st Century Socialism, which seems to be a very close relative of 20th Century Socialism – stealing.

    As far as I can tell, 21st Century Socialism consists of taking your national wealth and packing it in suitcases that are then delivered to other countries to buy , I mean help, foreign politicians who don’t mind prostituting themselves get elected or stay in power.

    Yet while Chavez is spreading his money and promises, folks in Venezuela are still missing staples like milk, according to Daniel in Venezuela News and Views;

    Yes, milk. There are reports also of people fighting for a pound of powder milk; or of the armed forces battling the “buhoneros” to force them to sell milk at the regulated prices. these ones preferred to spill milk on the side walk. As the shelves of Venezuela are slowly lacking more and more items we learned that through the dismal inefficiency of the Venezuelan public administration 1660 cows died in a ship at Puerto Cabello. In a tale worthy of Garcia Marquez tug boats had to push the boat at sea to throw overboard the putrescent meat. No word form the sharks yet though we are sure that the land sharks will keep whatever commission they pocketed to bring missing meat to Venezuela even if that one will never reach the shelves.

    While Katy of the Caracas Chronicles thinks that General Raul Baduel is inciting the Venezuelan military to stand with Venezuelans, and against Chavez, with these words;

    “As soldiers we’ve been professionally prepared to administer the State’s legal and legitimate violence, and therefore, we are experts in the topic of violence and what it entails. Our duty, specially during times like these, is to avoid the unleashing of violent processes and come forward as generators of calm and guides so the country can embark on a true path of development and as promoters and maintainers of peace, remembering the peaceful nature of the Venezuelan people which is expressed in Article 13 of the Constitution.”

    Reading Kate from A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective, her post entitled “You can’t shut us up either, Chavez“, she writes that Martha Colmenaras’ Spanish language Venezuelan blog has been hacked;

    Hartos de ZPorky reports a message from Martha, that her site was hacked immediately after having published a scathing post on Chávez’s behavior toward Don Juan Carlos as well as analyzing the events of 11A and not qualifying them as a golpe de Estado.

    BBC writes that Chavez has busied himself threatening Spanish economic interests in Venezuela;

    However, Mr Chavez said he did not want a political crisis with Spain following the clash – only that Venezuela’s head of state be respected.

    Later, however, he said political, diplomatic and economic ties with Spain were being closely reviewed.

    Spain has said it hopes for a swift return to normal diplomatic relations.

    Mr Chavez’s interview on state television on Wednesday could be seen as fuelling the row. 

    “[The king] disrespected me, and he was laid bare before the world in his arrogance and also his impotence,” Mr Chavez told a news conference on Tuesday, before adding: “We don’t want this to become a political crisis.”

    He went on to say that Spanish commercial interests in Venezuela were not indispensable and hinted that they could be affected if the dispute worsened.

    “Spain has many investments, private companies here and we don’t want to damage that, but if they are damaged, they are damaged… We don’t need it,” he said.

    These are acts of desperation – shutting down internal oppostion and shutting down external opposition from which Venezuela derives some benefit. He funnels money from the people of Venezuela to bribe ther countries for their support, while the people fight over fricken powdered milk. Yeah, great revolution you got going there, Hugo.

  • More Bolibanana Revolution news (Updated)

     

    I borrowed that Bolibanana Revolution tag from my good friend, Kate, I hope she doesn’t mind. But while the world and the media are fixated on Pakistan, violence and protests continue in Venezuela. From the Washington Times;

    Four police officers were shot and wounded during student protests yesterday in the city of Merida in an escalation of violent demonstrations against President Hugo Chavez’s plan to scrap term limits and extend his rule indefinitely.

    Antonio Rivero, head of Venezuela’s Civil Protection agency, told the Reuters news agency by telephone that the officers were shot while trying to break up clashes between opposing student groups in the Andean city.

    Chavez is worried that movement aganst his reforms could gather steam behind the resignation of his chief military minister;

    And opposition leaders seem wary of throwing their support behind retired Gen. Raul Baduel, a former defense minister who turned his back on Chavez this week to start a campaign against the constitutional reforms. Venezuela’s opposition has rushed to support defectors before _ only to see them return to the Chavez fold once it became clear he would keep the upper hand.

    Chavez is “worried, and he’s got reasons to be worried because this could build and he’s smart enough to realize that,” said Michael Shifter at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. But he added that it’s “very unlikely that Chavez is going to lose at the ballot box because the opposition is still weak, divided and has a hard time coming up with a common strategy.”

    Chavez and his allies are comparing the political atmosphere to agitation in 2002 and 2003 that culminated with a botched military rebellion and nationwide strike. The unrest left the opposition demoralized and allowed Chavez to consolidate his power over the oil industry and the military.

    But it was Baduel who played a major role in returning Chavez to power during the 2002 coup, and his defection raised the spector of military discontent. Acknowledging Baduel’s words were like “gasoline,” Chavez gathered his military leaders this week to evaluate their possible impact.

    Dallas Blog, quoting a Financial Times story, explains that the rift in the military has been brewing for a few months;

    President Hugo Chavez created controversy earlier this year when he ordered members of Venezuela ’s armed forces to salute their superiors with the words, “Fatherland, Socialism or Death.”

    The Financial Times reports that “it fueled debate in the military over its involvement in politics and civil society – long a sensitive issue in Venezuela , not least since the failed coup five years ago against Mr. Chavez, in which factions of the military played key roles both in deposing him and reinstating him.”

    Kate translates from Venezuelan Maria Colmenares’ blog on the history of violence Chavez has used to against opponents;

    The assassinations committed by the government on 11 April 2002 constitute the permanent and systematic modus operandi of the Regime. The objective of this video –aside from providing new information on the events of 11A– is to anticipate a new massacre which is being prepared by government sympathizers, with the end of stopping the protests against the constitutional reform. It is explains to the national community “and especially to the international community” that, for the government, “the Revolution is above the life of Venezuelans,” and that each time the Regime feels threatened, it resorts to assassinations –using irregular groups– as a mechanism of repression and intimidation. To justify and cover up their crimes, the line of the government invariably alleges that it is defending itself from a “coup” orchestrated by the opposition. We count on you, pass it along, post it on your blog, here is the link:
    http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3fhme_la-masacre-del-11-de-abril-fue-plan_news

    Reader Renwaa sends this link from Sultan Knish about the Shi’ite Venezuelan Deputy Justice Minister; 

    When students protesting Hugo Chavez’s plan to make himself into a dictator for life protested in Caracas chanting “Freedom”, the riot police that smashed through their ranks were under the supervision of Deputy Justice Minister Tarik or Tareck El-Aissami.

    In his early thirties Tarik El-Assimi is one of the younger men to have held such a post. His father Carlos el-Aissami headed the Venezuelan branch of the Baath Party, while his great-uncle Shibli el-Aissami was a close Saddam ally and served as assistant to the Secretary General of the Baath Party.

    Before the invasion of Iraq, Carlos El-Aissami held a press conference in which he described himself as a Taliban and called Osama Bin Laden, “the great Mujahedeen, Sheik Osama bin Laden”. The son, Tareck el-Aissimi who headed up Venezuela’s visa department and now serves as deputy justice minister, began as student union leader supervising drug dealing and a car theft ring, while intimidating his rivals. He maintained links to terrorist organizations. With the rise of Chavez, Tariq El-Aissimi’s rise began as well.

    It reminded me of the story from Jungle Mom about Hezbollah recruiting among Venezuelan indigenous population after Chavez booted the Christian missionaries out of Venezuela. All of this ties Venezuela to Iran. 

    Venezuelans are saying that the violence is inspired by the chavistas so the government can seize the universities and end the opposition;

    Higher Education Minister Luis Acuña, meanwhile, offered to send in troops to quell the violence, but university authorities quickly rejected the offer as an attempted power grab.

    “We won’t fall into the trap,” said Eleazar Narváez, rector of the Central University of Venezuela.

    Chávez’s opponents say the president has long wanted to end the autonomy of Venezuela‘s public universities, most of which are run by rectors associated with the opposition who defeated Chávez followers in campus elections.      

    Of course, Chavez’ revolution is completely funded by oil revenues, so it’s no surprise the day after Brazil announces a huge find off it’s coast, Chavez offers them membership in his club;

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez invited Brazil to join his “Petroamericas‘‘ initiative that aims to strengthen a regional energy alliance on the back of surging world oil prices.

    The initiative is seen as a rival to the U.S. economic influence, and it would integrate previous oil projects Petrosur, Petrocaribe and Petroandina, under which Venezuela agreed to sell fuel to other countries in the region on preferential terms.

    Chavez has said the energy alliances will challenge U.S. domination in the region and distribute fuel directly to avoid costly intermediaries.

    Actually, Chavez is trying to expand his influence in the region. He’s offered to build refineries in many non-oil producing Latin American countries to capture their support.

    The Devil’s Excrement translates an article that points out that while Chavez plays at being a diplomat, his people are running out of staples;

    There is no milk but there is yogurt. There is no sugar, but there is Splenda. There are no eggs, nor meat, nor rice, but there is caviar, salmon and all the things to make Sushi. What type of economy is this? Who are the geniuses that play politics in the name of the poor and the result is that all that is available are the goods for the rich?

    The battle against inflation does not only consists in that article do no go up in price, it is also necessary for goods to be on the shelves. Scarcity is the hidden face of inflation. When you try to fir into a corset, not even the economy, but human nature itself, the senseless signs of communism or Bolivarian socialism begin to appear: there is no milk for the kids, but there are I ported crackers for pets The Government knows it and I suppose they must be surprised at it. But its reaction, its next economic measures will likely be even worse. The little understanding, when it is not ideological denial of the basic rules of economics will take them to make the disequilibria even more extreme.

    And the English speaking Left still carry Chavez’ water – after all it’s only brown people suffering;

    The corporate-owned media is at it again, spreading lies and distortions about the peaceful and democratic Venezuelan revolution led by the government of President Hugo Chavez. The catalyst for the international media campaign is the democratic process in Venezuela to reform the existing constitution.

    The media ignores the content of the proposed reforms, which would significantly extend democracy and social justice. Instead, by taking a tiny minority of proposed changes out of context, they are present the reforms as a move by Chavez to establish himself as a “dictator-for-life”.

    This media campaign coincides with a fresh offensive inside Venezuela from the privileged elite, who, failing to defeat pro-Chavez forces at the ballot box, have before resorted to violent campaigns to overthrow the government. Chavez has won 11 straight national election victories since 1998, most recently Chavez was re-elected president last year with the largest number of votes in Venezuelan history. 

    I found this almost comical video of Chavez singing to his dying (dead) mentor last month in Havana. I say almost “almost comical” because the reality of the two subjects of the video make it impossible to laugh.

    Speaking of Castro, Babalu Blog’s Ziva writes;

    We know that Hugo Chavez is a dictatorial thug who intends to emulate fidel castro, and rule Venezuela for life. The violence the media reports as disturbing now, is less so than the unreported government sanctioned murder of 6 thousand Venezuelans, documented in IACHR’s 2006 Annual Report. The violence we are witnessing now is less disturbing than will be the inevitable “cleansing” of dissidents that will occur if this monster is not stopped.

    Who knows the effect of dictators in Latin America better than the Cuban ex-patriots? We’ve seen it all before – so why are we so fixated on the dealings of our allies when there are much more dangerous people we should be watching?

    As usual, Bloodthirsty Liberal puts a smile on my face after all of the dreary research.

    UPDATE: Jammie Wearing Fool reports that the Spanish King finally did what most of us would like to do;

    Spain’s King Juan Carlos told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday to “shut up” during closing speeches by leaders from the Latin world that brought the Ibero-American summit to an acrimonious end.

    “Why don’t you shut up?” the king shouted at Chavez, pointing a finger at the president when he tried to interrupt a speech by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

    Proving Mel Brooks right – it’s good to be the King. Curt from Flopping Aces has the Spanish language video.

  • Mr. Banana and his grand revolution

    While I was out of town, the Venezuelan Legislature rubber-stamped Chavez constitutional reforms. Michele Malkin reported it and asked where Sean Penn, Danny Glover and Naomi Campbell were.

    So with a referendum imminent, Venezuelan students took to the streets again this week, with grave results.

    Photos from Venezuela News and Views

    The Devil’s Excrement has unmasked the shooter in the second photo;

    And he also has photos of the getaway vehicles;

    Notice it’s a police vehicle – which explains why the shooters were able to pass through the police lines without being apprehended after shooting at least nine protesters.

    The AP described the incident;

    In fighting that included gunfire, teargas and stone-throwing, some pro-Chavez men were trapped in a faculty building surrounded by opponents until others burst into the campus on motorcycles, shooting in the air to rescue them.

    However The Devil’s Excrement explains it differently;

    While we have known that the Chavez Government lacks scruples and has an absolute disregard for the law and the truth, it never ceases to amaze us how cynical they can be in terms of distorting the truth. The savage and brutal attack on the students by a group of Chavista thugs is quickly becoming a sort of Puente del Llaguno II, where the hoodlums that attacked the students returning unarmed from their peaceful march are now supposed to have cornoered and attempted to lynch the “poor” Chavistas who were at the University.

    First of all, pro-Chavez and anti-Chavez students coexist peacefully at Central University, so there is no explanation for this sudden impulse to lynch them. They have faced each other in debates and elections and there has only been violence whenever outside groups have gone in and stirred it up. Like yesterday.

    Let us first recall, that at around 4 PM, the Vice-Minister of the Interior and Justice sent police groups to all entrances of Central University and appeared on TV saying that he was doing this to stop any extraneous groups from creating violence. Why did he do this and why did he say it? Then the violence began and in most of the videos and pictures (there is one in my mind that is not clear if the guy is  part of the pro-Chavez thugs or not) those armed, organized and attacking the students with weapons and on motorcycles are pro-Chavez groups. 

    CNN reports (hat tip to QandO) that Chavez, in true Orwellian language, beseeches the Venezuelan Right to avoid the “facist path” of violence;

    President Hugo Chavez condemned Venezuela’s opposition on Friday for resorting to “fascist violence” in protesting constitutional changes that would greatly expand his power.

    Police officers fire tear gas and rubber bullets at university students protesting Thursday in Caracas, Venezuela.

     But Chavez did not respond to accusations that his government is responsible for the upheaval.

    Portraying his political foes as anti-democratic right-wingers, Chavez accused opponents of seeking help from Washington and Venezuela’s military.

    “I urge the people of the right not to go down the fascist path,” Chavez told state television from Santiago, Chile, where he was attending a summit of Latin American leaders. “They generally take the path of fascist violence and confront the laws and the people, and they are always looking to the Pentagon, high-ranking generals.”

    Dislike for Chavez is apparently not confined to Venezuela according to Reuters;

    Protesters for and against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez got into shoving matches outside Venezuela’s embassy in Chile on Thursday as leaders from the Latin world arrived at a summit to discuss tight energy supplies and other issues.

    The leftist Chavez, a strident antagonist of Washington who has used his country’s oil wealth to spread influence in Latin America, has supporters among some Chilean leftists but others declared him an unwelcome guest ahead of his expected arrival. 

    So what was Chavez doing while Venezuelans were being gunned down in the streets? Meeting with thugs from FARC, of course;

    President Hugo Chavez met with a representative of Colombia’s largest guerrilla group Thursday, saying he and Luciano Marin Arango held their first talks aimed at negotiating a swap of rebel-held hostages for jailed guerrillas.

    “We are here trying to put the pieces to together” for an agreement, Chavez told state television as Marin Arango, better known by his nom de guerre Ivan Marquez, stood next to him on the steps of Venezuela’s presidential palace.

    Reuters wrote that Venezuelans are flocking to Panama, something I can attest to, having just returned from Panama City myself;

    Wealthy Venezuelans are emigrating to Panama in increasing numbers, snapping up luxury homes as they fear their leftist President Hugo Chavez will hold onto power for life and rebuild the country in the image of Communist Cuba.
     
    With a shining new skyline, Panama is starting to rival Miami as a center for Venezuelan expatriates, who are attracted by the Central American country’s booming economy and a lively Caribbean culture like their own.

    But they’re driving up real estate prices and pricing Panamanians right out of the market. Panmanians are already blaming their economic problems and their social stagnation on Venezuelans and Columbians. 

    Chavez is making emigration more difficult according to Venezuelans and Panamanians I talked to there. Chavez has said he’ll allow adults to leave Venezuela but their children must remain behind (to get that mandatory indoctrination Chavez demands). He’s also trying to limit the amount of money they can take out of the country to about $5000/year. Those two measures should pretty much prevent anyone from leaving. People I talked to in Panama compared it to East Germany’s wall.

    American Leftists continue to write idiocy to support Chavez and his grand experiment in “dual power”, because afterall, it’s only brown people who’ll suffer;

    These perspectives are erroneous, since they cannot account for what have emerged as the central planks of the revolutionary process. I will focus on the most significant of these planks: the explosion of communal power.

    Communal councils in Venezuela are merely Chavez’ rat patrols set up to skirt the influence of local elected officials who stand in his way to control every aspect of Venezuelan life. If Chavez believed in democracy, as he claims, he’d concede to local elected government. But of course he doesn’t – the reason for the existence of communal councils.

    But, he insists his reforms are democratic;

    The socialism that Venezuela is constructing is “totally democratic and humanist,” Chavez reiterated, and the reforms, which recognize new forms of collective, communal, and social property alongside private property, as well as giving more power to grass roots communal councils and social programs, among other changes, aim to establish “a communal, socialist economic system in each commune.”

    He explained, “this economic system will be managed by everyone, by all the constituents of the communes.”

    For example, he argued, gas stations would be managed by the communes, and that the income from this could be used to provide resources for social programs and community projects.

    To democratise the economy, Chavez argued, “Is the only way to defeat poverty, to defeat misery and achieve the largest sum of happiness for the people,”

    However, he said, this contradicts the interests of capitalism and imperialism, and an international media campaign to demonize the reforms and the revolutionary government in Venezuela, has already begun, in order to justify a possible military coup or foreign intervention.

    “This is a battle, a political war, it is part of an international conflict,” he continued, “because we have declared ourselves free, and we are constructing freedom and imperialism is not going to take away our vision.”

    Funny how the Left always sees politics as a war and a struggle against some invisible enemy – like the Democrats in the US who proclaim that they want to fight for me.

    Katy from Caracas Chronicles highlights the real difference between the two sides;

    So while we contemplate with horror how students are attacked, let’s keep our heads cool and remember a few key ideas:

    1. We offer reconciliation and peace, chavismo offers violence. This idea may sound like a cliché, but it should be the core of our message, and this has practical implications. Restraint is the key here. If we defend ourselves using violence, we can no longer confidently say that we are for reconciliation.

    Kate from A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective links to a Noticias24 story about the defacement of a mural equating Che to Simon Bolivar painted by socialist students at the Central University;

    I guess that’s a whole lot better than getting shot, isn’t it?

  • Sarkozy; America liberated us. This is an eternal debt.

     

    Photo from Whitehouse.gov

    Coming back from vacation, I’m trying to catch up news and found the headline quote in a link from Fausta’s Blog. I thought maybe I’d been away longer than a week – it was a quote we could have only dreamed of a scant few months ago. It’s been a long time since a French leader recognized the United States as anything except an adversary – most of my half-century of life on this planet.

    The quote (as reported by the BBC) from Sarkozy came from the speech he gave to Congress, but the rest of the paragraph is more heartwarming;

    “America liberated us. This is an eternal debt,” he said, adding: “I want to tell you that whenever an American soldier falls somewhere in the world, I think of what the American army did for France.”

    The BBC also reported that Mr. Sarkozy was at Mount Vernon yesterday discussing events with President Bush (press conference video here). That’s particularly significant to me because of what resides there (besides George and Martha Washington). On the wall in the entranceway to Mount Vernon hangs an ancient key.

    It’s the key to the west portal of the Bastille prison, where many of the French monarchy’s political prisoners were held. The storming of the Bastille on July 14th, 1789, to the French, equates to our own Boston tea party or the skirmish at Boston Commons. It was the opening salvo in their own fight for liberty.

    In 1790, General Lafayette sent the key to the Bastille to George Washington – to me, that key represents France’s indebtedness to the United States for influencing their own struggle for freedom. Unfortunately, that link has been diluted by five French constitutions, and communism (or socialism, or progressivism, or whatever you want to call that crappy religion to which the peawitted are clinging these days).

    I’ll never forget the first time I saw the key when the guide explained it’s history. Always the cynic, I thought “Ungrateful frogs”. I’d wished that the whole country of France could see that key on that wall – maybe it’d cause an national epiphany. Then I bought a replica which is now on my bookcase between the bronze busts of Washington and Reagan.

    Fausta quotes from the translation of Sarkozy’s speech to Congress earlier in the day;

    What makes America strong is the strength of this ideal that is shared by all Americans and by all those who love her because they love freedom.

    America’s strength is not only a material strength, it is first and foremost a spiritual and moral strength. No one expressed this better than a black pastor who asked just one thing of America: that she be true to the ideal in whose name he, the grandson of a slaves, felt so deeply American.

    I still can’t shake the feeling that I must be dreaming.

    Say Anything has video of Sarkozy’s speech to Congress. Rob echoed my thoughts exactly while I watched it;

    He speaks of America in such glowing terms that you almost wonder if he isn’t, in some ways, more American than certain Democrats I could think of.

    And if you went looking for reports of Mr. Sarkozy’s speech this morning in the Washington Post, you’d have been disappointed. The first article I came across was a Reuters attempt at serious journalism – which failed, by the way;

    French President Nicolas Sarkozy returned home on Thursday from Washington to face skepticism about his new transatlantic friendship and a month of strikes that signal a growing pile of domestic problems.

    I wonder when the rest of the Left is going to recognize America’s contribution to liberating the world.

  • Still Delusional After All These Years

    John F(ing) Kerry (who served in Vietnam) had this to say after a recent appearance:

    “We have put together a documented portfolio that frankly puts their lies in such a total light of absurdity and indecency, that should they ever rear their ugly heads again, we have every single ‘t’ crossed and ‘i’ dotted, and I welcome that in a sense,” “It’s a shame we weren’t able to produce all that at the time.”

    As a child, I was taught that the fastest way to defuse a lie was with the truth. How much time does it take to tell the truth, Senator?
    This fool thinks the Democratic Party will give him the nomination again. Face facts, John, you are 63 (and look 73…) and the DNC doesn’t renominate losers. They didn’t for Gore, they didn’t for Dukakis and they won’t for you. According to this story in the Boston Patriot Ledger The liberal Senator from Massachusetts went on to show his complete lack of understanding of Christianity:

    “Evangelicals care enormously about the centrality of the teachings of Jesus Christ and of the Bible,” he said. “If you lead a life and if you are involved in issues that manifest a concern for those kinds of issues, there’s no reason that one separate issue or another ought to create a wedge.”

    Uh, John, “Evangelicals” is kind of a slur the way liberals use it. One separate issue? Like say, homosexuality, and the liberal’s penchant for encouraging it? Were the Bible law, the prohibition of homosexual acts would be “Black Letter Law” as it is clearly spelled out in no uncertain terms.
    Or were you talking about abortion, John? For, while there is no biblical prohibition of that, true, the entire spirit of the Bible is counter to the ending of life out of convenience. Or maybe, the problem the good Senator has, is that little fact that bearing false witness is proscribed? Had I repeatedly lied about the troops, that one might bother me a bit too…

    Apparently, none of the Democrat candidates, not even his former running mate the Silky Pony, have asked for his endorsement. Gee, he must really be feeling the love of his party now…

    He still managed to find the time to trot out the hackneyed and, by the way, idiotic accusation that Republicans, by actually wanting to fight terrorism are exploiting the memory of 9/11. I, for one am getting very tired of that particular claim.