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Category: Hugo Chavez

  • The Hugo Chavez method comes to the US

    I wrote yesterday about Think Progress’ new report on the Right’s domination of the airwaves, at the same time Michele Malkin was writing about the Center for American Progress’ report that came out on the same day – oddly enough. Now the news services are announcing that Hillary and gal pal Barbara Boxer were overheard trying to strategize to legislate the Right’s dominance on radio away. 

    I’ve always wondered why the Left, who claim to be “liberal” and “progressive” “human rights” and “defenders of the First Amendment” weren’t more vocal about what Chavez, Correa and Moreno were doing down in Latin America – and now I know. In fact, there was even a piece on the DailyKos defending Chavez’ shut down of Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) – all because that’s what the Left here in the US intend to accomplish as well.

    From CNSNews;

    Derek Turner, research director of Free Press, said “the potential one-sidedness on the radio dial in terms of political programming is strongly and directly related to ownership and market structure.”

    Turner argued that “increasing diversity and localism in ownership will produce more diverse speech [and] more choice for listeners.”

    Mark Lloyd, another CAP senior fellow, attributed the “imbalance” to “the breakdown in the Federal Communications Commission regulatory system during the Reagan administration in the 1980s and the elimination of caps on ownership in telecommunications during the 1990s.”

    It’s a “structural imbalance” – see a structural imbalance means that it can corrected – if it were a market imbalance, no amount of legislation could MAKE people listen to Moonbattery. The imbalance can’t be because of market forces, it’s because the evil Republican white guys have been plotting nearly thirty years to take over AM radio. Nevermind that AM radio was almost dead before Rush Limbaugh came along. But that doesn’t matter – the Republicans have an advantage, so to “level the playing field” Democrats want to legislate away that advantage. The solution to fairness and equality, you see, is legislation – not hardwork.

    Blake Dvorak of RealClearPolitics quotes an American Spectator interview with a Pelosi aide last month;

    The report would be easy to dismiss if not for the fact that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she will “aggressively pursue” reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, according to two House Democrats who spoke to the American Spectator last month.

    A senior adviser to Pelosi explained the Speaker’s reasons to the Spectator:

    First, [Democrats] failed on the radio airwaves with Air America, no one wanted to listen … Conservative radio is a huge threat and political advantage for Republicans and we have had to find a way to limit it. Second, it looks like the Republicans are going to have someone in the presidential race who has access to media in ways our folks don’t want, so we want to make sure the GOP has no advantages going into 2008.

    Again, it’s blind adherence to what the nutroots want (whenever the media says “Democrat base” – they mean that Leftist vocal minority that spends every minute of every day on the internet).

    So now we know why there was hardly a peep from the Congressional Democrats when Chavez started censoring his opposition - Venezuela was a guinea pig test case to see if Americans were paying attention. They weren’t, with the exception of a few, so now the Clinton/Boxer team figures it’s time to strike.

    Monica Crowley calls Clinton “Putin in Drag“;

    The former head of the KGB and current president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, recently made it illegal to engage in so-called “extremist” talk and activity.  In Russia today, you can get arrested and silenced—and often, killed—for publicly criticizing the government.  Over 1000 Russian journalists have been murdered since last year—all for speaking out against the corruption, cronyism, and tyrannical oppression of the Putin regime.

    I’m reminded that Brigette Bardot was arrested and fined in France for “hate speech” – hate speech that warned about Arab/Muslim immigration diluting the french culture in her book. So can ridiculous laws like that be far behind this latest Orwellian plot to silence conservatism?

    What’s next? Blogs?

    Kate at A Colombo-Americana’s Perpective provides a lot of Spanish language press on goings-on in Latin America in reference to Chavez and our policy towards him. Apparently the Senate Foreign Relations Committe is finally discussing Chavez’ authoritarian tendencies and the House has authorized more radio frequencies to be directed at Venezuela.  But that doesn’t solve our own problems with Chavez-wannabes, the fugly girls of the Senate.

    Kara Rowland in today’s Washington Times talks to local DC radio programming directors about the Center for American Progress report;

    “Nothing in this report addresses the tremendous impact that public radio has,” said Chris Berry, general manager of D.C. conservative talk station WMAL-AM (630). “The fact is, many people, even NPR listeners, consider public radio if not liberal, then certainly in the category of ‘progressive.’ “

    In the Arbitron winter ratings, D.C. public radio outlet WETA-FM (90.9) scored a 4.9 share — although it changed to classical music in the middle of the ratings period — and WAMU-FM (88.5) had a 4.3 share. Together, the public stations top the most-listened-to commercial station, urban WHUR-FM (96.3), which had a 6.9 share.

    Moreover, Mr. Berry noted, the report does not include morning FM radio shows that are topical or cover political issues, especially programs targeted at black listeners.

    WMAL is owned by Citadel Broadcasting, one of the five major broadcasters examined in the Center for Progress study, whose results argue that Clear Channel Communications has the most liberal talk content in absolute terms — 229 hours a week, or 14 percent of its programming. As a percentage, CBS devotes the most time to liberal talk at 26 percent; followed by Clear Channel at 14 percent and Citadel, Cumulus and Salem all at zero percent liberal (and 100 percent conservative).

    “I think that it basically is saying that conservative talk radio is dominated by conservatives,” said Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers magazine. “I don’t know what it means. If it’s an attempt to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, that’s unconstitutional. If it’s to try to end consolidation, it’ll create a bunch of independent radio stations that will go out of business because of the economics of 2007.”

    Which is exactly what the Left wants – no private broadcasts. In the Chavez model, they want everyone listening to the Democrat-approved drivel on NPR. They want radio stations that plug I-Pods into their transmitter and hit “shuffle” – all music, no comments. That’s basically what would result from a new Fairness Doctrine.

    In typical, Democrat hypocrit-fashion the sponsor of the new legislation says there’s not enough “choices”;

    “The American people should have a wide array of news sources available to them. The more opinions they can hear, the more news sources they can learn from, the better able they will be to make decisions,” said Jeff Lieberson, spokesman for Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey, New York Democrat.

    Mr. Hinchey is preparing to reintroduce his Media Ownership Reform Act, which among other proposals calls for a return to the “Fairness Doctrine,” a long-held requirement that broadcasters give equal time to opposing views when covering political issues. The doctrine was repealed in 1987 because it violated the First Amendment.

    “…a wide array of news sources…”, huh? I wonder what Hinchey thought of Fox News being frozen out of Democrat Presidential debates.

    Update: Hillary and Boxer claim Inhofe didn’t hear them saying what he said they said;

    Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barbara Boxer say Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe “needs to have his hearing checked” if he thinks he heard them talking about a “legislative fix” to curb conservative talk radio.

    I tend to believe the worst.

    And, almost completely unnoticed is Amanda of Think Progress explaining how they don’t advocate bringing back the Fairness Doctrine – just take private property away from people to redistribute it;

    The report argues instead that we should address the more significant problem of concentrated ownership and ineffective regulation in order to push the market structure to better meet local needs. As report co-author John Halpin stated, “If we break up concentrated ownership, and encourage greater local accountability over radio licensing, and still end up with lots of conservative talk, then so be it. We don’t think this will happen but at least the playing field would have been made more level.”

    The CAP/Free Press report argues for more speech, not less. Conservatives should get their facts straight before blindly attacking others.

    Yeah, we should have noticed that their intentions were much more socialistic. A report entitled “Right Wing Domination Of Talk Radio And How To End It” should have been more readily accepted by the Right. The basis of the Right’s argument remains that the Left is looking for ways to get and keep their people on the air on talk radio even though no one is listening. That’s even closer to Hugo Chavez’ method than we originally thought.

    It all boils down the fact that they want a new fairness doctrine enforced by the FCC or the SEC or some government agency who will seize private property and redistribute it to the Left.

    I wonder if they feel just as strongly about breaking up concentrated union power in our schools and encouraging local accountability in the education system.

  • How the inmates began running the asylum

    What a nutty week, huh? We have Palestinians from the Gaza Strip begging the Isralis to let them into Israel so they can get away from other Palestinians and human rights organizations demanding that Israelis treat injured and ill Palestinians. From the AP by way of the Wall Street Journal;

    Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the army on Wednesday to allow into Israel any of the hundreds of Gazans holed up at a fetid crossing who might desperately need medical treatment.

    A teenager with leukemia was on his way through shortly after, the military said. Additionally, Israeli officials allowed all foreign nationals in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip to cross over to Israel.

    In related news, Israel’s Supreme Court was hearing a petition Wednesday by a human-rights group, demanding that Israeli authorities offer immediate medical treatment to 26 critically ill Palestinians hospitalized in Gaza.

    Israeli aircraft, meanwhile, fired missiles at two rocket launchers in northern Gaza, in the first aerial attack since Islamic Hamas militants took over the coastal strip late last week. No injuries were reported. Earlier in the day, Israeli tanks entered southern Gaza, and four people, including at least two militants, were killed in an exchange of fire, Palestinian hospital officials said.

    And of course, Jimmy Carter, being the dumbass country hick playing diplomat, blames the Bush Administration;

    Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, also said the Bush administration’s refusal to accept Hamas’ 2006 election victory was “criminal.”

    “Criminal”. And, of course, Carter doesn’t stop there. He claims that the murderous Hamas organization, a group of thugs masquerading as politicians (although that’s very thin line to begin with, I suppose) were elected fairly and democratically – by other terrorists;

    Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with Abbas’ moderate Fatah movement.

    Except that Hamas has been terrorizing the Fatah government, and dragging it’s opponents into the street and gunning them down – I guess that’s a more effective way of winning the next election – would Jimmy call that fair? All of Hamas’ opposition in the graveyards?

    Here’s a story of Carter’s heroic Hamas from Conflict Botter;

    They surrendered. A Hamas gunman shot one of the 12 soldiers in the leg and told the rest to run away. As they fled, they opened fire, Iki said, shooting them all in the legs as they tried to run away. A Hamas gunman came up and executed each wounded soldier, continued Iki. Iki was lucky, the execution bullet hit him in the side of the neck and he didn’t die. He lay semi-conscious on the street for an hour and a half bleeding. The bus driver who had driven the Hamas militants to the fight checked his pulse at one point and found he was alive. He started to help him.

    “Leave him or we’ll shoot you,” a masked militant said.

    Ya hafta wonder what is going through Carter’s head (if anything at all). Everyone (and I mean everyone) agrees that Jimmy Carter was a walking abortion as President, but everyone always qualifies that with “but he’s a good man”. How does this statement fit into the category of “a good man”? He’s actually encouraging Hamas to continue their murderous rampage through the streets of Gaza – and he calls that “more organized than Abbas’ moderate Fatah”. I very rarely use the expression, but this warrants it – WTF? 

    Here’s the conflict that Carter is having with his own statements; if the US has no business interfering in Palestinian politics, why should what we give the Palestinian government have any impact? I mean, all we did was not give them money and weapons. If I don’t like Walmart, am I still required to give them my money? 

    It’s like Carter’s other idiot cause – Cuba. If communism is so great, if Cuba is such a paradise why does it need trade with the capitalist US in order to survive? It’s trading with the whole rest of the world – why should trade with one nation out of 170 impact it so?

    To quote Investors Business Daily’s editorial (h/t Blue Crab Boulevard);

    The statement was so malevolent and illogical as to border on insane. Carter wasn’t honest enough to say he was rooting for terrorists who started a terrifying new war in the region and trashed what little democratic rule the Palestinians had. Instead, he tut-tutted the West for being insufficiently sensitive to the fact that Hamas thugs were democratically elected in 2006 in an “orderly and fair” vote.

    When one party has started a civil war, democracy isn’t exactly the issue anymore. Just being elected does not justify making warfare on your fellow citizens. 

    But everything Carter says conflicts with itself – I found this great article in the Jerusalem Post that calls Jimmy Carter “Father of the Iranian Revolution“;

    The truth is the entire nightmare can be traced back to the liberal democratic policies of the leftist Jimmy Carter, who created a firestorm that destabilized our greatest ally in the Muslim world, the shah of Iran, in favor of a religious fanatic, the ayatollah Khomeini.

    Carter viewed Khomeini as more of a religious holy man in a grassroots revolution than a founding father of modern terrorism. Carter’s ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, said “Khomeini will eventually be hailed as a saint.” Carter’s Iranian ambassador, William Sullivan, said, “Khomeini is a Gandhi-like figure.” Carter adviser James Bill proclaimed in a Newsweek interview on February 12, 1979 that Khomeini was not a mad mujahid, but a man of “impeccable integrity and honesty.”

    The shah was terrified of Carter. He told his personal confidant, “Who knows what sort of calamity he [Carter] may unleash on the world?”

    Who knew that Carter would still be unleashing his calamities on the world thirty years later? The JPost goes on;

    In his anti-war pacifism, Carter never got it that Khomeini, a cleric exiled to Najaf in Iraq from 1965-1978, was preparing Iran for revolution. Proclaiming “the West killed God and wants us to bury him,” Khomeini’s weapon of choice was not the sword but the media. Using tape cassettes smuggled by Iranian pilgrims returning from the holy city of Najaf, he fueled disdain for what he called gharbzadegi (“the plague of Western culture”).

    Carter pressured the shah to make what he termed human rights concessions by releasing political prisoners and relaxing press censorship. Khomeini could never have succeeded without Carter. The Islamic Revolution would have been stillborn.

    Gen. Robert Huyser, Carter’s military liaison to Iran, once told me in tears: “The president could have publicly condemned Khomeini and even kidnapped him and then bartered for an exchange with the [American Embassy] hostages, but the president was indignant. ‘One cannot do that to a holy man,’ he said.”

    What was holy about the murderous rampage that was carried out in Khomeini’s name throughout Iran? What was holy about the 444 days our citizens spent in captivity? And remember why the hostages were taken? Because Carter gave sanctuary to the shah and his family from being murdered by the Islamic Revolution.

    Remember why we propped up Saddam in the 80s? Because we were afraid of the murderous Islamic Revolution spreading – and so were the Gulf States which plowed money into Saddam’s war. Which is why Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 – he was deeply indebted to Kuwait and Gulf States and figured the Kuwaiti oil fields would give him some fiscal relief by eliminating one debtor and gave him cash to pay off the others.

    Now Carter has deepened the conflict by allowing Chavez, who rules by decree these days, to seize power in Venezuela with his petrodollars and form an alliance with Iran. And he still doesn’t get it;

    Carter said the consensus of the U.S., Israel and the EU to start funneling aid to Abbas’ new government in the West Bank but continue blocking Hamas in the Gaza Strip represented an “effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples.”

    I guess murdering the opposition in the street doesn’t have the effect of dividing the Palestinians into “two peoples” does it? Although, this Hamas government is a demonstration of how voters get the government they deserve. Palestinians voted for Hamas because Hamas hates Jews and thinks they have a mandate from God to kill Jews – so anything they do in the space of time before they get to kill all of the Jews should be OK with God, too. And with Jimmy Carter as well, apparently.

    In other related news, Aunt Agatha at Bloodthirsty Liberal mirrors my thoughts on Ahmed Yousef’s piece in the NYTimes explaining to us poor, ignorant Zionists and those guilt-ridden Leftists looking for an excuse to continue supporting the bloody Palestinians “What Hamas Wants“.

    Boker Tov, Boulder reports that the peaceful Palestinians fired off two more Kassam missiles into Israel.

    Israel Matzav tells us that the New Hamas “government” (for the want of a better word) warns that the new Sharia Law in Gaza is going to apply to the dhimmis still in Gaza. That should be a warning to dhimmi-wannabes here in the US, but, I guess it probably won’t.

    I figured that I’ve been spending too much time on that buck-toothed, shriveled up, has-been-that-never-was moron, Jimmy Carter, so instead of repeating myself over-and-over, I created a Jimmy Carter category and ya’all can just go click that link on your right and it’ll take you to all of my brilliant thoughts about that dull, little POS Jimmy Carter and I swear I’ll never type his name again. Cuz Don Surber and I share a common shame – we both voted for Carter once.

  • Where’s the media on Venezuela?

     

    (Photos from Venezuela Llora)

    I’ve been waiting for the media to start covering the student protests in Venezuela for a few weeks now – but not a word. So I have to go to the bloggers. I find it odd that none of the media are doing much of anything – including the Spanish-language networks (which seem more interested in Shakira than the freedom of speech of a few million Latins).

    From A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective, Kate writes that most Venezuelan’s support the student movement;

    A Datos poll of 600 Venezuelans across social classes found 56.2 percent supported the students, with only 23.8 percent opposed to them.

    Of the rest of those surveyed, 19.3 percent had no strong opinion and 0.7 percent said they did not know or did not want to reply.

    The poll, published in newspapers on Sunday, was conducted on June 8-10 and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

    Of course, Hugo claims that it’s a another Bush plot;

    Chavez has accused the students of being part of a U.S.-backed “soft revolution,” saying they are trying to model their protests on the 2004 “Orange revolution” in Ukraine.

    Daniel at Venezuela News and Views writes that Chavez went to Cuba to meet with his mentor and gets the idea that more socialism is the answer;

    In front of mounting trouble Chavez did what he does usually: escape to Cuba for a few days. Now that Castro is healthy enough to discuss politics some, Chavez went to look for new inspiration. The results came today through a lengthy cadena, an unusual event on a Saturday and yet another sure sign of worries inside the government. So, trying to seize back the agenda held by the students, Chavez went on a new rampage of promises and threats:

    And from DEBKAFiles (h/t Aaron’s Rod), Chavez just came back from Tehran after discussing the future of a joint defense pact with the mullahs and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega;

    DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources have learned add that the Islamic Republic’s rulers have been sounding out “revolutionary” Latin American governments about creating joint anti-US terrorist cells for attacks in North and South America. The subject came up in talks with Nicararagua’s Daniel Ortega when he arrived in Tehran Sunday and in discussions with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

    So, Hugo’s been a busy little fella, yet none of this makes it to the pages of the major media. Other than some fawning in the Associated Press about those two lovable rogues getting together in Havana;

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared Wednesday that his convalescing ally Fidel Castro has “recovered his fastball” and was in fine form during a six-hour visit.

    State TV reported the pair shared an “emotional” meeting Tuesday, discussing Venezuela-Cuba relations, climate change and a socialist-leaning regional pact they created.

    Ain’t that just the sweetest? The two major enemies of liberty in this hemisphere sharing an “emotional” meeting. This blatant disregard for impending danger is how al Qaeda became so perilous.

  • Communist Victims Memorial unveiled

     

    Yesterday, President Bush dedicated the new memorial to Victims of Communism here in Washington, DC. From the Washington Times‘ Kristen Chick;

    President Bush yesterday told hundreds of people whose countries had emerged from the grip of communism that their sacrifices would not be forgotten as he dedicated the Victims of Communism Memorial to the millions oppressed and killed by totalitarian regimes.
        “We’ll never know the names of all who perished, but at this sacred place, communism’s unknown victims will be consecrated to history and remembered forever,” he said to more than 500 people just blocks from the Capitol. “We dedicate this memorial because we have an obligation to those who died, to acknowledge their lives and honor their memory.”
        The memorial is the only such monument in the world, according to its founders, who estimate that communist governments have killed more than 100 million people.
        Mr. Bush compared the Cold War to the fight against terrorism, saying that the “evil and hatred” that inspired totalitarian regimes to kill millions is shared by terrorists today.  

    I took this picture about 20 years from a hill over looking part of the East German border about 20 miles north of the town of Coburg;

    This was one of the legal border crossings into East Germany – that narrow road in the bottom of the picture. This picture is the East German checkpoint on that same road;

    That’s how I remember Communism – a giant prison walled-in from the North Sea across Europe to Yugoslavia. Everyone remembers that Berlin was walled, but people tend to forget that there was a wall across all of Europe.

    I remember in the early 80s when there were Claymore-type mines attached to the razor-wire fence which would slice-to-shreds anyone above the weight of a sparrow who disturbed the fence. An entire population isolated from the world by mine fields and fences. It’s hard to imagine that even today, just a decade or so later.

    Oddly, at least in my mind, the world seems to have forgotten about the evil that men do to each other. In fact, people have ho-hummed Communism for years now – despite the cost in human lives. Books like Martin Ami’s Koba the Dread; Laughter and the Twenty Million  and the meticulously researched and footnoted Black Book of Communism should be required reading in schools everywhere – to teach the horrible lessons of the past that we should never forget.

    But, I guess it’s inevitable that Mao’s and Stalin’s deniers should crop up – just like Nazis’ Halocaust deniers. Jimmy Carter certainly didn’t learn his lesson from the Pol Pot regime. While Carter ranted and raved about arpartheid in South Africa, millions of Cambodians were butchered by Communists and millions of Vietnamese were “reeducated” or escaped in rickety boats. 

    If communism was really remembered as it actually was, no one would be forming a new communist bloc of nations in South America today unopposed.

    And, to prove they aren’t Mao’s China anymore, China threatens to step up war preparation against Taiwan because President Bush shook hands with Taiwan’s representative at the ceremony, Joseph Wu. 

    More on the lack of media coverage of the event from Newsbusters’ Michael Chapman.

    I may put some more pictures of the Inter-German border on this post tonight if I can remember which file I put them in when I get home.

    Well, I couldn’t find where I hid my scanned photos of the Border, but I found an early draft (in .pdf) of a book I started years ago that includes a bunch of photos and some stories tentatively titled Hier Grenze.

  • Venezuela’s students don’t let up pressure (Updated)

    (Photo from Venezuela Llora, Venezuela Sangra)

    Even though the media has pretty much ignored events in Venezuela this week, Venezuela Llora and Venezueal News and Views reports that protests continued yesterday. From Venezuela Llora;

    Professors, workers and the students of the UCV (Universidad Central de Venezuela) had called upon a march on Tuesday, the students from all the other houses of study answered. However the goverment refused to allow them to march that day, so the date was switched to Wednesday. Once again the goverment tried to not allow the march to happen, however this time the students decided that theyre were going to march.

    Daniel at Venezuela News and Views writes that the Venezuelan police tried to stop bus loads of students from entering Caracas;

    …now that we are under a not that veiled military regime, some stupid Captain, thinking he had more power than he really did took upon himself to stop buses coming up to Caracas full of students wanting to join the march. So, this lout thought he would scare students but these just decided that if they could not go up to Caracas no one else could. Soon, as the ARC was falling into a deadly lock everyone was allowed to Caracas. I wonder what that Captain learned today: democracy or shooting first? And that sad scene repeated at many exits of the ARC. Funny detail: Iris Varela claims that the students were sabotaging, “esos niñitos” she said, while Globovision showed the Nazional Guard trucks blocking highway access! Then again Varela has been living in a parallel universe for quite a while.

    This photo is from Venezuela News and Views. The sign reads “Please excuse the inconvenience, we’re working for your liberty”

    The Devil’s Excrement has videos and narratives of yesterday’s events. 

    Mary Anastacia O’Grady explained in an article entitled “The Young and the Restless” from Monday’s Wall Street Journal why it’s so significant that students are protesting;

    Until now, students have not played a role in anti-Chávez activism. Eight years of property confiscations, the jailing of government adversaries and the manipulation of voter rolls and elections prompted almost no student response at all. But the attack on free speech hit a nerve and sent them to the streets. This has captured the attention of the nation because student resistance movements have an important history in Venezuela. In recent days many have been recalling that it was an uprising from the universities that precipitated the fall of dictator Marcos Pérez Jiminez in 1958.

    Still, it is not clear that this is a grassroots movement that will run Mr. Chávez out of town. It is true that the students who are out in the streets attend the large state-run schools and therefore probably do not come from Venezuela’s elite families. But they are not from the nation’s most destitute families either, where Mr. Chávez finds his strongest support. It is safe to say that they mostly represent the country’s middle and lower-middle income sectors. Yet it is notable that the protests have spread beyond wealthy Caracas to include public universities in poorer parts of the country where student bodies tend to be even more humble.

    What is also new, and even more interesting, about this resistance movement is its focus on “freedom” and calls to end “the dictatorship.” Mr. Chávez’s beloved Revolution may have once claimed the moral high ground by asserting that its enemies plotted a nondemocratic coup on April 11, 2002. But now the president and his chavistas seem to be the ones on the defensive, with polls showing more than 70% of Venezuelans opposed to the closing of RCTV. This suggests that the dissatisfaction does indeed cut across economic classes.

    Please read these articles in their entirety, the writings of people on the scene and the very knowledgable Ms. O’Grady (who has been warning us for years about Chavez in the pages of the Wall Street Journal) are all we’re going to get on this important story, apparently. I’m disappointed that the Administration isn’t doing more to stop this two-bit thug – just like I’m disappointed that Congress won’t lift a finger to condemn Chavez.

    Associated Press (by way of Fox News) writes that Chavez is calling for a Latin American socialist defense bloc;

    President Hugo Chavez called for the creation of a common defense pact between Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia, while the leftist Latin American bloc announced the creation of a development bank to finance joint projects.

    Chavez said Wednesday that the four-nation Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, or ALBA, which began as a socialist-leaning trade group, should cooperate militarily to become more independent of U.S. influence.

    “It seems to be the moment to establish a joint defense strategy,” Chavez said. He called for joint military aid as well as intelligence and counterintelligence cooperation “to prepare our people for defense so that nobody makes any mistake with us.”

    I guess that way Chavez doesn’t have to worry about using Venezuelan troops to put down the protests in his own country, he can use the police and armed forces of other countries against his own people in the model of Robert Mugabe.

    Chavez also called the failed US call for an investigation of the Venezuelan government’s closing of RCTV “a great defeat for the empire” according to AP; 

    President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday that the United States suffered a humiliating defeat in its move to condemn Venezuela internationally for forcing an opposition-aligned TV station off the airwaves.

    Chavez began a news conference by playing a video of heated debate between his foreign minister and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at an Organization of American States meeting in Panama on Tuesday. The OAS declined to adopt a U.S. request to investigate his government’s removal of Radio Caracas Television from the air.

    “A great defeat for the empire,” said Chavez, who said OAS member countries had refused “to play (Washington’s) game” and instead backed his government.

    “It was the greatest defeat _ a moral defeat, a political defeat,” said Chavez, who maintains the government made a proper legal decision not to renew the channel’s license.

    Since the OAS can’t summon the testicular fortitude to stand up to this pompous shrimp, it is a defeat for all of the people of Latin America – their weak-kneed tacit approval of the silencing of Chavez’ opposition can only embolden Ortega, Correra and Morales to crush dissent in their own countries. Ultimately, it’s liberty that has been defeated.

    And at least some Cubans in the United States see the parallels between their plight and that of Venezuelans.

    Speaking of Cubans, I found this on Babalu Blog;

    Cuban workers are also the only ones working at that mysterious “city” that is being built near Carayaca. Those Cuban workers should be the concern of the local criollo unions.

    With the complicity of the Chavez Government they are being subjected to a truly savage exploitation, of the pre-capitalist savage style, a feudal savage style, which would make you laugh at the neoliberal type. They do not contract the workers; the Cuban state does it from them.

    They receive as payment less than the Venezuelan minimum salary and the Cuban Government charges for each worker US$ 600, of which the worker and his family in Cuba, see nothing but US$ 20, in pesos.

    I guess that’s what Venezuelans have to look forward to from the Chavez government. How long before Chavez starts exporting his opponents to work in Cuba to prop up that collapsing regime?  

    UPDATE: Daniel at Venezuela News and Views recounts today’s events at the National Assembly – the studaents had to be transported out by armored car for their own protection from the chavezistas – reminicient of Noriega’s Dignity Battalions.

  • Condie vs. Hugo

    (Photo from Venezuela Llora, Venezuela Sangra) 

    In my favorite city in the world (Panama, RP), my favorite Secretary of State dueled with my favorite villains, the Venezuelan government according to Carmen Gentile in the Washington Times;

      Miss Rice hurled the first salvo, saying freedom of speech is not a “thorn in the side of democracy,” a direct reference to the shutdown of RCTV by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez because of critical reports about his government.
        “Freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of government. They are the beginning of justice in every society,” Miss Rice said during her opening remarks to OAS foreign ministers.
        “Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially in a democracy,” she said.
        Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro struck back, saying, “Venezuela demands respect for its sovereignty.”
        He sought to turn a critical eye on the United States, saying the OAS should conduct an investigation of how the United States treats detainees at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, instead of concerning itself with the closure of a Venezuelan TV station.
        After his address to OAS leaders, Miss Rice asked for and received an opportunity to rebut the Venezuelan minister’s remarks.
        “As to issues in the United States of human rights, of how we fight the war on terror, the detention of unlawful combatants at Guantanamo, on immigration policy, on any issue, I am quite certain that it would be difficult for any commission to debate more fully, to investigate more fully, to criticize the policies of the United States government then is done every night on CNN, on ABC, on CBS, on NBC and on any number of smaller channels in the United States,” Miss Rice said.

    Now, Ms. Rice should’ve mentioned Chavez’ prisons and the conditions there as compared to the facility at Guantanamo and she shouldn’t have walked out so that the Venezuelan could describe Guantanamo unchallenged;

    The Venezuelan foreign minister said Guantanamo was akin to”something monstrous, only comparable to the Hitler era.”

    I’m pretty sure that any of Chavez’ political enemies aren’t as well-treated as the monsters in Guantanamo. I’d like Chavez to prove otherwise – like where are the 200 demonstrators he arrested last week being held and in what condition?

    According to the Associated Press (via Washington Post), Rice called for the OAS to get involved;

    At the meeting, she urged the OAS to send its secretary-general, Jose Miguel Insulza, to Venezuela to look into the closing of the station and deliver a full report on his findings.

    Maduro struck back, waving a couple of red herrings, like the Left tends to do;

    Maduro, speaking after Rice, reacted angrily, saying her comments were an “unacceptable intervention is the internal affairs of a nation, and that is why we reject it.”

    “Venezuela is asking for respect,” he said. “We demand respect for our sovereignty.”

    Maduro defended the decision not to renew RCTV’s license as “democratic, legal and fair” and accused the United States of repeated violations of human rights, including at the U.S.-Mexico border where immigrants “are chased and hunted like animals” and at Guantanamo Bay, where he said terrorism suspects are being “held hostage.” 

    Too bad Nancy Pelosi was busy trying to decide how to keep her fellow Democrats out of jail or she could’ve taken the opportunity to support Venezuelans.  

    In the meantime, I learned from Pheistyblog that RCTV has three daily news broadcasts on YouTube. It’s the #1 subscription on YouTube for the week – #2 for the month at this writing.

    In the meantime Daniel at Venezuela News and Views reports that Chavez’ forces are denying entry into Caracas of bus loads of young people, while students have taken to the High Court to defend their right to protest Chavez. from Daniel’s link to El Universal;

    Thousand university students walked Monday up to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) to file a petition in the collective interest, on behalf of their rights to demonstrate.The students planned to request TSJ to ensure their right to hold demonstrations across the whole city. Last Friday they were not allowed to go to the National Assembly (AN), downtown Caracas.”The idea is to secure the right to protest. And we asked also the opportunity to take the floor at the Parliament. Sovereignty resides in people and people delegate it to the National Assembly,” said Stalin González, the president of the Federation of University Student Councils (FCU) at Central University of Venezuela (UCV), AFP quoted.

    Unfortunately, the courts have no power over Chavez since the Venezuela Legislature gave him unlimited power to rule by decree back in January as we were warned by Fausta Wertz.

    In other news from Latin America, the Today Show is broadcasting from Havanna this week and the Babalu Blog has a Blog Burst going on for questions Matt Lauer should be asking the Cuban government while he’s there. Henry “Conductor” Gomez also critiques Wolf Blitzer’s interview with Ricardo Alarcon, Cuba’s president of the National Assembly pronouncing Wolf Blitzer a dolt. So I guess it’s unanimous now.

  • Chavez supporters get benefit of media coverage

    (Photos from Venezuela Llora, Venezuela Sangra)

    Jose Ferero from the Washington Post (in a story that I can’t find in the Post, by the way – oops, here it is; h/t VZ News and Views), writes that the anti-Chavez movement is picking up steam;

    But press-freedom groups note that the [RCTV television] station has not been officially sanctioned, nor have its owners or managers been charged with conspiracy against the state. Other private stations that were harshly anti-Chávez but have toned down critical coverage avoided the same fate, as communications Minister William Lara readily acknowledged in an interview broadcast Friday on CNN’s Spanish-language service.

    Polls show that 65 to 80 percent of Venezuelan respondents disagreed with the government’s decision to end RCTV’s concession, though many were simply upset that they wouldn’t be able to see some of their favorite soap operas.

    The widespread dissatisfaction has re-energized an opposition movement that lost much of its momentum after its efforts to recall Chávez were defeated in 2004 and after its decision to boycott parliamentary elections in 2005 left it without representation in the National Assembly.

    60-85% is a pretty significant number in anyone’s book. But to read the news reports today, one might believe the opposite is true. Here is all Deutche Welle reports this morning;

    Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Venezuela’s capital Caracas Saturday in a show of support for President Hugo Chavez. The march follows the president’s controversial closure of an opposition television station, which back in 2002 had openly called for the president’s removal from office. The country’s telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon said the president was democratizing the country’s broadcast spectrum. The country’s political opposition views the move as a gross violation of press freedoms.

    The protest against Chavez last week happened in every major city in Venezuela, but this support for Chavez was concentrated in Caracas – the capitol. DW merely parrots the Chavez line and calls it news. AFP goes a step beyond the German press and counts “hundreds of thousands”;

    Hundreds of thousands of President Hugo Chavez’s backers Saturday marched in a show of support for his controversial closure of an opposition television station, now an international scandal.

    Supporters of the leftist president marched under his slogan of “democratizing television and radio,” one day after students surprised the government with large anti-Chavez demonstrations demanding freedom of expression.

    “Starting today, the (pro-government) counterattack must be maintained across the country,” Chavez rallied the throng, claiming that a “destabilizing maneuver was afoot to carry out a gentle coup” and topple his government. He did not offer details.

    “If the Venezuelan oligarchy … does not accept this call to live together in peace that we are making, if it keeps on attacking using the things it still controls, it will keep losing those things one by one,” Chavez warned.

    (Editor Note: I noticed APF just changed the story to read “tens of thousands” Odd, huh?)

    I guess “Venezuelan oligarchy” is code for “vast right wing conspiracy”. Associated Press toned down the numbers even further;

    Earlier Saturday, reggaeton music blared and fireworks crackled as thousands of “Chavistas” gathered at an opposition stronghold in wealthy eastern Caracas before converging with other marches in the capital.

    Information Minister Willian Lara said the march would “demonstrate before the world that the non-renewal of (RCTV’s license) … is a democratic conquest,” claiming the private media has been “held ransom by a small economic group.”

    A democratic conquest. Get that? When you can silence your opposition, that’s democratic. From the invisible Washington Post story;

    Michael Shifter, a senior analyst for the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy group in Washington, D.C., that closely follows Venezuela, said he didn’t think [Chavez attacks on the “oligarchy”] would get much traction this time.

    “All of his previous attacks were on the corrupt capitalists, but this goes way beyond that and it touches on Venezuela’s cultural identity,” Shifter said of Chávez. “It’s very hard for him to talk of the rancid oligarchy here. These are university students protesting, not part of the old order.”

    If students took to the streets to protest their president silencing the opposition anywhere else in the world, they’d have the support of the media and the Left here in the US. Just like that first picture above – a single man, shirtless, weaponless holding back the tide of government forces while others rush to his aid – would have been on every frontpage and magazine cover as a symbol of the popular stuggle against a totalitarian government, if only it’d been taken in a protest against a more conservative government.

    APF went on to say that the incident may have isolated Chavez somewhat from anothe Leftist ally;

    However, the struggle now jeopardizes relations with at least one of Chavez’s fellow leftist leaders in South America.

    Brazil’s Senate formally requested on Wednesday that Chavez reconsider his decision to close RCTV.

    Chavez retorted, “The Brazilian Congress should worry about Brazil’s problems,” and accused it of being Washington’s “subordinate.”

    Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defended Brazilian lawmakers and told Chavez to mind his own business, a position welcomed in the Brazilian press.

    Lula “did what he had to do to defend Brazil’s independent and democratic principles,” Folha de Sao Paulo editorialized Saturday.

    Ratcheting up the pressure, Lula asked his foreign ministry to call in Venezuela’s Ambassador to Brazil to have him explain Chavez’s response.

    I guess we all have these little victories to cling to for awhile. RDTV (India) published this AP story;

    ”We don’t accept interferences from anybody about internal Venezuelan matters. Absolutely from nobody,” Chavez said to thousands of red-clad supporters on Saturday.

    He also warned that if the ”bourgeoisie of Venezuela” continued their undermining of the ”Bolivarian people of Venezuela, they will continue losing their possessions one by one. One by one,” he said to a roaring crowd.

    Large, sometimes violent protests by students warning of a threat to freedom of expression erupted after his decision to take RCTV off the air.

    Chavez says the outcry is being fomented by government opponents trying to topple his administration.

    He has warned other broadcasters, radio stations and newspapers covering the protests of unspecified sanctions if they continue to ”incite” instability.

    Saturday’s warning took that a step further, warning the private media he could abruptly end their licenses at any moment. 

    He’s threatening the middleclass and the remaining private broadcasters. We probably can’t trust much that comes out of Venezuela in the near future.

    The US Left has been mostly silent on Venezuela. Nancy Pelosi wrote a letter to Chavez announcing her “concern”,  but the Daily Kos had a long post by heathlander describing the Leftist party line (I won’t link to it because Kos doesn’t need my comparably pitiful traffic) in case anyone is tempted stray from the plantation over this loss of civil rights for Venezuelans;

    RCTV, together with three other private media corporations (Globovision, Venevision and Televen), which together control some 90% of the TV market, played a leading role in instigating and supporting the 47-hour coup. These private stations, owned by anti-Chavez billionaires and businessmen, have led an unceasing anti-Chavez campaign since the day he was elected.

    So why didn’t Chavez prosecute those billionaires and businessmen five years ago after he defeated this supposed “coup attempt”? Why did he just let their license expire instead of taking the case through his administrative law judges and jerking their license with proof that they had supported the coup? In our system (admittedly not the Venezuelan system), we don’t deprive citizens of their property without their day in court. The Left constantly tells us that we should use our system of justice and rights to other nations’ citizens (as in Guantanamo) so why aren’t they for imposing our legal protections on Venezuela? If George W. Bush shut down a TV network comparable to RCTV, or let their license expire without a hearing, and defended his actions by claiming the network had plotted his demise, the Left would be apoplectic. So why doesn’t the Left care about this particular group of brown people?

    Well, that’s because Chavez is the next best hope for the Left to re-establish a successful communist dictatorship, since all they’ve had up to this point is Cuba and North Korea – two miserable failures that are starving their inhabitants and are punchlines in more jokes than Brittany Spears. Chavez has the benefit of petro-dollars to finance his workers’ paradise. Although I don’t understand why a truly socialist society would need money – isn’t that th whole point of socialism?

    And besides we all know who’s behind those rich media guys in Venezuela;

     

    The good news, according to VivirLatino is that RCTV is still broadcasting – on the internet.

    I’ve been getting email from readers asking why I’m so focused on this story – because I think we need to support this anti-Chavez movement until they are successful and they get their government back. It’s a cinch that our own government will do nothing, given our history in the region and the fragility of our reputation. Latin America has been so inundated with anti-US propaganda for decades (I’ve watched and read alot of it while studying modern history there and in my travels) that anything we do, as a government, would be labeled “imperialist”. We should encourage Venezuelans to restore Venezuela themselves, though – they have the power and the wherewithall to accomplish this. They just need to know that we support them.

  • Bolivarismo failing before it barely starts (Updated)

     

    Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez subscribes to a Latin American version of the British “Third Way” politics (it’s supposed to be an alternative between capitalism and socialism – but it’s really just a step towards socialism) called “bolivarism” – meant to recall Simon Bolivar’s revolution against Spain which led to the liberations of that continent. Bolivar is often called the South American George Washington. Well, this latest move of Chavez’ – shutting down RCTV, the last opposition Television voice on the Venezuelan airways – might have been a step too far according to Bloomberg;

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s shutdown of the country’s most-watched television network has set off growing condemnation in Latin America and may derail his drive to become the region’s leader.

    Brazilian senators today debated a motion to “condemn” Chavez after he called lawmakers there “parrots” of the U.S. for criticizing his decision to close the broadcaster. Chavez last month branded Chile’s legislature “a bunch of fascists” after the body passed a resolution objecting to his plans.

    “I’m afraid that if we don’t raise our voices to denounce this situation, we could become accomplices through omission,” Chilean senator Jaime Naranjo, a member of President Michelle Bachelet’s socialist party and head of the senate’s human rights committee, said in a telephone interview today. “As Chileans we know how important international solidarity is when a country starts to violate human rights.”

    Well, how does Chavez respond? Like everyone else, he blames Bush,according to Associated Press;

     President Hugo Chavez has claimed that a right-wing conspiracy led by Washington is out to demonize his government for forcing an opposition TV channel off the air.

    Speaking during an event Thursday with the visiting leader of Vietnam’s communist party, Chavez said “international rightist, extreme-rightist and fascist movements are attacking Venezuela from everywhere — from Europe, the United States, Brasilia.”

    He targeted Brazil’s Senate for approving a motion earlier in the day including a call for Chavez to reopen the channel.

    “Nobody should interfere,” Chavez said, accusing lawmakers in Brazil of “repeating like a parrot what is said in Washington.”

    “To those representatives of the Brazilian right, I say that it is much, much, much more probable that the Portuguese empire will again install itself in Brasilia than that the Venezuelan government will return the expired (broadcast) concession to the Venezuelan oligarchy,” Chavez said.

    Fianlly, the Carter Center speaks out against Chavez – not Carter himself, but the Carter Center;

    Also Thursday, the Atlanta-based Carter Center joined the European Union , the Chilean Senate, the U.S. government, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders and others who have said RCTV’s removal could chill free speech in Venezuela.

    The organization founded by former President Carter, which has observed past elections here, expressed concern that “non-renewal of broadcast concessions for political reasons will have a chilling effect on free speech.”

    “A plurality of opinions should be protected,” it said. “The right of dissent must be fiercely defended by every democratic government.”

    The center said if the government wants to deny renewal of a license based on alleged crimes, “these should be tried through the justice system before a decision is made.”

    Paris-based media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders accused Chavez of seeking to stamp out the country’s opposition media entirely.

    “Media that criticize the government will be snuffed out one by one until only the pro-government media are left,” it said. 

    I watched Telemundo’s new sbroadcast tonight and some Venezuelan Madeleine Albright look-alike spokeswoman for the Chavez regime accused President Bush and his State Department of fueling the protests. As if Chavez can’t believe that Venezuelans would stand up to his revolution without being incited from outside. Of course, he realizes that maybe he’s not as popular as he thought and he needs to stir up his base using the world’s favorite boogeyman.

    Bloomberg quotes Chavez a little differently than AP;

    “The extreme right and the fascists are attacking Venezuela from the U.S., Europe and Brasilia,” Chavez said in a televised speech yesterday. “Nobody should be butting in here.”

    I guess Cindy Sheehan is writing his material now – no wonder she quit the US.

    In spanish-language news, it’s being reported by AP that Venezuelans are leaving with their money and going to Panama – like the Cubans flocked to Miami to escape Castro. I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.

    Not surprisingly, the International Action Center (founded by Ramsey Clark – you know, Saddam’s lawyer pal who’s always complaining that this Administration is always violating someone’s civil rights) is sending out an email to defend Chavez’ violation of every Venezuelan’s basic human rights and to anounce their intent to start a media campaign defending Chavez’ government. MFVOV has a copy of the email and the letter from the Venezuelan ambassador reassuring Nancy Pelosi that no Venezuelans’ rights are in danger.

    Red Alert warns us that Chavezistas are right here in the US and has the video of Chavezistas shooting at unarmed Venezuelan patriots. Babalu Blog details Jimmy Carter’s role in silencing Chavez’ media opposition.

    I’ve discovered an interesting blog about events in Venezuela called Venezuela News and Views (hat tip to The Reaction my current battlebuddy on Real Clear Blogs – Saturday versus Boing Boing and the Daily Kos) for anyone who is interested.

    I think this thing happening  in our hemisphere is at least as important as the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if it’s true that an important reason we freed Iraqis and Afghanis from their respective oppressors, this should be prominent on our radar screens, too. Maybe moreso – continued oppression of the middle class in South America can only expand illegal immigration here. In fact I remember last year that a boatload of Peruvians were bound for the US until mother nature intervened and sunk their leaky boat off the coast of Panama. So it’s not that hard to imagine a wave of Venezuelans since Congress would rather talk than build a wall.