Darcey, at DMB;
The Canadian coverage of the issue as seen on CTV and CBC is almost apologetic and provide more focus on the pro-Chavez demonstrators. Its no wonder we have so many Chavez sympathizers in this country.
Reader Stephen Bloom wrote me a while ago with these observations;
I am appalled by the coverage of the subj. by Cdn media. [of the kidnapped and murdered Faddoul brothers -ed ]. A few reports when they were abducted and then virtually nothing until their tragic demise. Contrast that with the media’s obsession with the ‘Christian Peace Makers.’
I rule out the possibility that the children were ignored because of their hyphenated nationality (consider the Cdn/NZ ‘nationality-of-convenience’ of one of the CPM). It occurs to me that they have been ignored because of the bad light that might be cast upon the ‘socialist paradise’ of Venezuela with its rampant corruption under the lefts favourite Bush-baiter. What do you think?
I think he’s figured it out.
There’s a photo essay up at Venezuela News And Views.
hmm..this is from Associated Press and not CTV.
It is endlessly fascinating to me how two people can look at a story and see opposite things.
What I see is a society that has democratically elected a socialist president and the financial and power elite are upset because their almost absolute control over power and wealth is being challenged.
On top of this you have American corporate interests,lead by oil companies, through the State Department and the CIA are trying to disrupt and subvert this ‘hostile'(we don’t have carte blanche with natural resources any more) but democratically elected, government.
I see the children story as part of this ongoing drama. Either the children were used by the Venezuelan elite for political purposes,as a sign to the west that this is Chavez at work. I don’t see how Chavez had anything to gain from doing this. The Americans and Venezuelan upper classes could hope to smear Chavez through such an act. The American government has already almost taken him out once and they continue to regularly talk nasty about him. Of course, Chavez gives it right back in spades. In future when the Americans take him out one way or another, everybody will have been conditioned to just shrug and say,”Yeah,he was one of these brutal socialist dictators.” In reality nothing could be further from the truth.
hmm..this is from Associated Press and not CTV.
Kate and her buffoonish cohorts still don’t understand the concept of newswire stories.
Uh, sure, Venezuela is a socialist paradise. We would be too if we had allies like North Korea and Iran. Besides, what is 70,000 deaths anyway when the Americans make terrorists wear women’s panties in gulags and flush full-size korans down mini-toilets! As any good leftist, I would prefer 70,000 dead neo-con capitalist swine before seeing one panty-wearing terrorist! The horror!
/sarcasm
How precisely does that alter the point being made by both Darcey and the reader?
Be specific.
Robert McClelland – apart from your ad hominem remarks (why do you make them; does it make you feel good to kick others – is that the type of personality quirk you have?)… you are quite incorrect in your comment.
Kate correctly shows us that the commentary is taken from another site by indenting it. She provides us with the link. DMB (Dust my Broom).
DMB simply says it is ‘seen on CTV’. Nothing about origin (AP). That is all that one can say about it.
Therefore, you do not understand the concept of showing secondary sources on blogs (indentation); you do not understand verbs (‘as seen on’ does not mean ‘original source’).
steve d – because someone is democratically elected does not mean that their policies will be valid or not harmful.
Because someone is middle or upper class does not mean that they are ‘bad’ people. In fact, the people who earn the most, have the most to invest. I doubt if you’d like to live in a sustenance level economy. An industrial economy requires highrisk investment; that requires a lot of surplus money, because returns from investment can take years. No low income worker can produce investment returns for an economy, therefore, your knee-jerk hostility to wealth, is economically unsound.
“Yeah,he was one of these brutal socialist dictators. In reality nothing could be further from the truth.” -steve d.
What a classic example of not just ignoring reality but of substituting ones own.
“Yeah,he was one of these brutal socialist dictators. In reality nothing could be further from the truth.” -steve d.
What a classic example of not just ignoring reality but of substituting ones own.
This is what Mclelland and Stevie boy live for. It’s a elected workers paradise complete with government sanctioned death squads slaughtering the very people that produce the wealth and provide the jobs.
Of course what they will do once they have eliminated all those capitalist pigs. Any skilled individual will either be in hiding or have moved.
I suppose some Capitalist country in the region will welcome them with open arms and they will prosper and grow. A large middle class will develop and the majority of the poor will move into the middleclass.
Then of course Chavez will have to declare war on the Imperilists. this will do two things of course employee the millions of starving people in his own country and give him a excuse to sieze assets in the wealthier neighbour. But then that is what the Left is all about death and destruction.
I posed a question on a European blog and will post it here. If the left is so all fired up about sharing the wealth with their poor bretheren why haven’t they siezed the 30 Trillion plus dollars in government union pension assets. And distributed this to their poor bretheren in Africa and South America. 30 Trillion is a conservative number when it comes to the size of those Pensions for the Western worlds public service unions, further it represents about 3 years of total output for the US economy.
Personally, until I see the left setting those funds adrift everything they have to say is just bullshit.
Steeved
“It is endlessly fascinating to me how two people can look at a story and see opposite things.
What I see is a society that has democratically elected a socialist president”
I agree
I was as wrong as you always are…
I thought that picture looked at first glance like our CBC employees in there usual condition while at “work”.
Kooky eh?
…dang!
Bought the wrong Koolaide package
Steve: Why do you support the democratic elected governments of Iran, Venezuala, the Hamas, and fail to support the policies of Harper and Bush. They also won a democratic election. So,according to you, everyone should support them, no questions asked.
Let me,.. see brutal dictator, kills his own people… Next we’ll hear that Chavez has WMD.
and if Trudeau was around he would probably be hanging with his buddies like Castro & Chavez, because they are “for the people’.
Matters not a whit about depriving folks of their basic human right like free speech, froeedom to worship in their own manner etc, as long as the dictators pretend to be “for the peopel”.
Liberals & whiners like RM just carry to much hate inside to see the reality.
maryT – nice question.
..actually this is a scientific experiment dealing with methane emissions from cow gone awry…
EPA�s Non-CO2 Gases and Sequestration Branch has developed the following educational information and tools to evaluate the impact of livestock production on methane emissions. View the list of available materials below and make your selection.
http://www.epa.gov/methane/rlep/resources.html
Glen, you mean Wackos of Mass Delusion. Yep, check, he has you and Steve and the family dog (McClelland) play toy.
I was in Caracas prior to Chavez. Even at that time Venezuela was a scary place. One city block surrounding the Hilton where I stayed had 25 murders a weekend on average. The murder rate has dramatically multiplied since.
Proof again that any socialist dictator equals murder, death, destruction and general all around misery. But then, what else is new?
McClelland is an embarrassment to the Scottish.
Steve d,
You are kidding, right? I assume you put that garbage about Chavez being a democratically elected socialist – like Hitler and Mussolini I’d like to add – to try and get a rise out of people. No sane individual could possibly believe it. But if you do believe it please let me know, so I can buy several guns and build an underground bunker.
Glen, what does WMD have to do about Venezuala? You are confusing issues. Just because the conventional wisdom has it that Saddam did not have WMD, does that mean that nothing bad ever happens? Since Iraq supposedly didn’t have WMD, does that mean genocide isn’t occurring in Sudan or that the leader of Iran hasn’t called for the extermination of Israel?
Incidentally, if you want to read actual documents about Saddam’s ties to terrorist groups and WMD programs try a google search on jveritas. Some fascinating translated material there that inexplicably is not being aired on CBC. The actual Arabic docs are also available for viewing in PDF format.
Democratically Elected !
be very happy for paper ballots here in Canada,
Aleksander Boyd at http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php
has covered the manipulation of computerized ballots… the same company recently was responsible for the fiasco in Chicago…
he also covers the dead 70.000.
remember Mr. Pinochet was responsible for little more than 3.000. dead.
and the left still rightly cries for these missing…
but the silence regarding these deaths… is growing very loud.
Dead Venezuleans don’t count. Dead Iraqis count.
Any murder that helps socialism is in general a good thing, murder that neither helps nor hinders the socialist cause is acceptable.
Iraqis probably don’t want a socialist dictator however, they have had enough of dictatorship, so any death in Iraq is a terrible tragedy.
Another one-sentence drive-by post from Rob’t as per his usual modus operandi, with no follow-up. Typical, cowardly, sneering behaviour – you’re credit to your, uh, whatever you represent.
Robert is missing his daily ass kicking at W.K.’s
place ever since Kinsella shut down the comments section.
Sort of like an aids virus of the blogosphere.
Welcome nowhere.
Why answer McClelland at all? Ignore the adult-toddler and eventually he’ll curl up in the corner and go to sleep.
ET
Just because a man is democratically elected doesn’t mean his policies won’t be damaging.
You just described G.W.Bush! His administration proves you are absolutely correct. But they can both be voted out in the end. I think Bush will go long befor Chavez though. Bushes base is 33% and shrinking. Chavez has 58% and growing.
Great comments and thank you people for giving me a positive. More Canadian “Venezuela fun” at marxist.ca.
Steve is quite the political projectionist – considering the US has Presidential term limits.
Now Chavez, in all likelihood, will probably be re-elected in perpetuity, in the democratic tradition of Fidel Castro.
maryT
The Democratically elected governments of Canada and the US will not be overthrown by the CIA. Americans have a long history of demonizing a leader before they take him out. It looks like the demonization process is very far along. The oil companies will have their way no doubt but the people won’t forget, they will know the truth.
The same thing happened in Iran in 1953. The Americans took out a democratic government because it had the audacity to want to nationalize its only resource, oil. They installed a puppet dictator, the shah of Iran and that ended democracy in the middle east.
Senor has his sans-culottes. Where are his guillotines?
Watch for the bloodbath Terror (H/T Robespierre) to come. +
Chavez begins training civilian militia (does he feel a faction of the military is untrustworthy?)
Miami Herald ^ | April 19, 2006 | FABIOLA SANCHEZ, AP with Natalie Obiko Pearson, AP
Posted on 04/19/2006 2:33:16 AM PDT by Cincinatus’ Wife
CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez constantly warns Venezuelans a U.S. invasion is imminent.
Now he’s begun training a civilian militia as well as the Venezuelan army to resist in the only way possible against a much better-equipped force: by taking to the hills and fighting a guerrilla war.
Supporters of the president, a former paratroop commander, are increasingly taking up his call. Chavez wants 1 million armed men and women in the army reserve, and 150,000 have already joined, surpassing the regular military’s force of 100,000. Now Venezuelans are also organizing neighborhood-based militia units for Chavez’s Territorial Guard.
Critics of Chavez say the real goal of the mobilization is to create the means to suppress internal dissent and defend Chavez’s presidency at all costs. Thousands of Territorial Guard volunteers – housewives, students, construction workers – are undergoing training, earning $7.45 per session.
“We’re going to be a country of soldiers,” declares Roberto Salazar, an unemployed 49-year-old, after scrambling under barbed wire, wading through a mud trench and skirting burning tires with other volunteers.
Venezuela’s citizen-soldiers come mostly from the slums where Chavez draws his fiercest support. They train on weekends, learning how to handle assault rifles and run obstacle courses through clouds of tear gas. +
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1617519/posts
The blinkered Conservative sycophants on this post are amazing. Haven�t you heard of the Munroe Doctrine? How many thousands has this US policy killed in Latin America since 1823? I guess we can�t talk about that because it was all in the name of �freedom.�
Face it: one by one the Latin American countries are turning their backs on Amerikan influence through democratic elections, giving the finger to the Munroe Doctrine. Amerika�s global dominance is on the wane, and blaming the �left-wing� media for delivering this message isn�t going to change things.
Kate
Here you are. If you really want to know what has been going on in Latin America. This is a very well researched speech by Walter Gordon given at University of Toronto.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1699
sparticus
Munroe Doctrine?
It’s the MONROE DOCTRINE. Named for U.S. President James Monroe. So you learn a little obscure knowledge in your second year history class, big deal. How does 200 year old political decisions justify genocide in the modern world?
Oh, the sick mind of a socialist.
Actually steve d the speech was by Maria P�ez Victor
And to think that it was only in February 2003 that chavista propagandists, living comfortably abroad, were weaving spider webs, such as “there are no political prisoners in Venezuela” [Mar�a P�ez-Victor (PhD., Sociology), “Why Canada Should Support Ch�vez” (CERLAC Bulletin 2.1). Uhh-huhh. Of course P�ez-Victor’s comment, which was offered on a silver platter to innocents at York University-Toronto, was rebutted when a member of the audience (moi) asked her if the name of General Alfonso Mart�nez meant anything to her. It did not as, beyond the torch she then carried for Chavez, P�ez-Victor had lived outside the Venezuelan reality for a number of years. And so the rebuttal continued, mentioning that this General of the National Guard was under house arrest for several weeks, in spite of there being no charges laid against him, and in spite of his having a habeas corpus in his favor. P�ez-Victor then obfuscated the issue, skipping merrily along to the next point in her marketing agenda.
I should have included this: http://caracaschronicles.blogspot.com/2004/06/political-prisoners-of-revolution.html
Trent:
I’ve seen it spelled both ways. Regardless of the spelling, you may think that history is irrelevant. I beg to differ.
1823 The Munroe Doctrine declares that Latin America is within the United States’ “sphere of influence.”
1846 The U.S. goes to war with Mexico and the latter is forced to cede half of its national territory to its northern “neighbor,” including present-day Texas and California.
1854 The U.S. Navy bombards and destroys the Nicaraguan port town of San Juan fel Norte. The attack occurred after U.S. millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt sailed his yacht into the port and an official attempted to levy charges on his boat. The Navy attack was to pay the way for William Walker.
1855 William Walker, operating on the half of bankers Morgan & Garrison, invades Nicaragua and proclaims himself President. During his two-year rule, Locher also invaded neighboring El Salvador and Honduras, proclaiming himself head of state in each of these countries also. Locker restored slavery in areas under his occupation.
1889 The U.S. declares war on Spain and annexes Guam, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Hawaii. U.S. forces also occupied Cuba, another former Spanish colony, after the war.
1901 U.S. forces leave Cuba and the country gains its “independence” only after passage of the infamous Platt Amendment, under which the U.S. abrogated to itself the “right” to to intervene in Cuba’s internal affairs at anytime. Kubo was also forced to cede Guantanamo Bay to the U.S. in perpetuity.
1903 The U.S. “encourages” the creation of the separate state of Panama, then a part of Colombia and acquires rights to Panama Canal. In later years, former President Theodore Roosevelt�effective creator of Panama�was to remark: “I took the Canal zone and let Congress debate.” Columbia was later paid $25 million in compensation.
1905 U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the United States to be “the policeman” of the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic�and part of Hispaniola�then found to have committed an offense and is placed under a “customs receivership.”
1912 U.S. Marines invades Nicaragua, beginning and occupation that was the last almost continuously until 1933. In the same year, President Taft declares, “The day is not far distant when three Stars & Stripes at three equidistant points will mark or territory: one at the North Pole, another at the Panama Canal and the third half the South Pole. The whole hemisphere will be ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally.”
1914 The U.S. Navy shells the port city of Veracruz, the attack apparently caused by the refusal of some Mexicans to salute the Stars & Stripes. During World War I, the U.S. also invaded Mexico and Hispaniola�present-day Dominican Republic and Haiti. They stayed for 20 years.
1933 U.S. forces leave Nicaragua leading dictator Anastasio Somoza and his National Guard and control.
1954 The CIA orchestrates the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Jacabo Arbenz, in Guatemala. The Guatemalan poet described the Arbenz government has “years of spring in the country of paternal tyranny.” Almost 40 years of violence and repression followed, culminating in the “scorched earth” government terror of the 1980’s. Over 150,000 people lost their lives.
1961 U.S.-backed forces conveyed Cuba but suffered defeat at the Bay of Pigs.
1965 23,000 troops sent to the Dominican Republic to “restore order,” following a popular uprising against the country’s military regime.
1973 A U.S.-backed coup overthrows the elected government of Salvador Allende, ushering in the regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
1981 The Reagan Administration initiates the “contra war” against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
1983 US invasion of Grenada.
1989 US invasion of Panama to arrest one-time prot�g�, Manual Noriega. The operation leaves thousands of civilian casualties.
1990 Massive US intervention in the Nicaraguan election process through covert and overt means. Washington openly funded the opposition coalition, yet such foreign funding of US parties would be illegal under US law.
2000 As part of the “War on Drugs”, the US launches Plan Colombia, a massive civil and military aid programme for a country with perhaps the worst human rights record in the hemisphere. Total US funding is $1.3 bn, with 83 percent of that going to the military. Plan Colombia later becomes subsumed into the War on Terror.
2002 The US supports and funds elements that organised the unsuccessful April 11 coup in Venezuela.
The people of Latin America remember their history.
steve d.
venezuelanalysis.com is paid for by the Chavez government, a list of others are here…
http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?query_string=venezuelanalysis
I especially like the part where President Taft declares, “The day is not far distant when three Stars & Stripes at three equidistant points will mark or territory: one at the North Pole, another at the Panama Canal and the third half the South Pole. The whole hemisphere will be ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally.”
Aided and abetted (the North Pole, anyway) in 2006 by Harper The Bootlick, no doubt.
So sparticus what do seventy thousand unsolved murders in Venezuela have to do with harper you stupid piece of socialist crap.
Seventy thousand murders according to who? Amerikan controlled media? Since Harper is a Bush clone, I just have to throw him in. I wonder if Harper is going to have us join the “coalition of the willing” to go help overthrow that evil Chavez?
The Venezuelan government is engaged in a massive money laundering operation, the object of which is obvious: to set up a pipeline with which to transfer�s Venezuela�s billions of dollars of oil profits overseas for Chavez and corrupt members of the �Bolivarian Elite.� Chavez has a good model for their endeavor; Cuba�s Fidel Castro and senior Cuban officials are reputed to have millions of dollars in accounts in Panama, Brazil, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries. Castro himself is believed to be a billionaire.http://www.lanuevacuba.com/archivo/kenneth-rijock-8eng.htm
Ricardo Fernandez Barrueco, a known front for the Chavez family, has opened dozens of offshore accounts in the tax havens of the world, both in the Caribbean and in Europe. His business organization, the Proarepa Group, is in truth and in fact owned by Chavez and his immediate family. http://www.petroleumworld.com/issues022406.htm and here http://www.worldthreats.com/latin_america/Chavez_Moves_Wealth_Offshore.htm
Together with dozens of other civilians and military personnel, who embraced the Bolivarian revolution�s populist and Marxist ideology, Chavez spent at least 15 years openly conspiring to topple Venezuela�s democratic government in a coup and install a Cuban-style militarist regime in Venezuela. http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200602231708
With oil earnings ballooning and with local-currency liquidity dammed up inside the country by exchange controls, it is not surprising that the supply of bolivars as measured by the M-1 monetary aggregate has more than quadrupled since Chavez imposed restrictions on dollar purchases in January 2003. This, in turn, has pushed down interest rates, so much so that the yield on benchmark 91-day government bonds has dropped to under 6%. Chavez has changed the economy almost beyond recognition in the seven years since he ascended to the Presidency by inventing, initiating, or increasing a myriad of social programs and extending the government�s control over the economy. This, in turn, has caused black markets to sprout while some of the legal ones have dried up and shortages have developed for some basics such as coffee, beans, and sugar http://www.rundtsintelligence.com/SampleAlert.asp
According to the people of Venezuela or where did you think the demonstration was you moron
I’m not sure that anyone has identified one of the major benefits that the Chavez regime has brought to Venezuela. There is now another sun-drenched holiday destination for my university colleagues who have begun to tire of the same old Cuban resorts.
“Sparticus” (sic) says that he’s seen the Monroe Doctrine “spelled both ways”. For a man who can’t even spell his nic right, let’s check Google.
“Munroe” doctrine:
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=%22munroe+doctrine%22&btnG=Google+Search&meta=
Monroe doctrine:
http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=%22monroe+doctrine%22&spell=1
Which one looks like an accurate spelling, and which one looks like a classic example of the internet “whispering game”, where errors are compounded through repetition?
And of course you cut and pasted your “helpful” timeline from here:
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003/USA-In-Latin-America13apr03.htm
…a website that helpfully links to the Venezuelan gov’t website, the Bolivarian Fund, Counterpunch, Common Dreams and the “World Socialist Website”. And provides links to 9/11 conspiracy info that says – big shock – that the buildings were a “controlled demolition”. This is all the same, tired, paranoid crap that we’ve seen a million times before, “Sparticus” (I’m sure you’ve seen that spelled different ways, too.) And utterly bankrupt. Thanks for the bellowing from the echo chamber, but maybe people will take you seriously when you learn to spell America without a ‘k’ – though I’m sure you’ve seen that spelled different ways, too. You bright little penny.
It�s amusing how a couple small spelling changes can get you rightwingnuts cranked up.
Americans: a mostly nice, though somewhat ignorant people living south of Canada
Amerikans: neoconservative fascists whose only goal is the accumulation of wealth and power
Spartacus: leader of a slave revolt in Ancient Rome
Sparticus: not Spartacus (duh!)
You�re so blinded by Amerikan propaganda (WMD in Iraq, ha ha)that you think everyone who disagrees with you is stupid. Seventy thousand? Why isn�t Amnesty International talking about this?
Thanks Sparticus” (sic)
A great history lesson.-sarc
Especially when one looks at todays standard of living for the people of Hawaii and Texas compared to Cuba and Venezuella and Mexico.
I thank God I was born in a former British colony instead of a Spanish or a French one.
Sparticustard,
Now lets see what kind of history your non-human type has produced: Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, Che, Fidel, Chavez, etc, etc.
How many more millions will have to be murdered in order to fullfill yours and your comrades blood lust, you cockroach? How much more suffering and misery will be inflicted on common men and women, in order to fill the newest dictator’s ego and bank account?
Go back to commie school punk.
RE; “Americans: a mostly nice, though somewhat ignorant people living south of Canada”
Oh My Gosh! Sparticus-sic- has never read a map.
Or met an American expat.
BOZO alert!
SDA has got another clown on board.
I think Amnesty International – the sort of international body that folks like Sparticus (sic) seem to think are the final arbiter for everything – is concerned:
http://web.amnesty.org/report2005/ven-summary-eng
Which includes tidbits like this:
Police brutality
There were continuing reports of unlawful killings of criminal suspects by members of the police. Relatives and witnesses who reported such abuses were frequently threatened or attacked. No effective protection was granted to them despite calls by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the authorities to do so.
* Luis Barrios was killed in September, allegedly by members of the Aragua State police. Two days before his death he was reportedly told by members of the police that hooded men were going to pay him a visit. His brother, Narciso Barrios, was allegedly killed by the police in 2003. Since then the family had been threatened, intimidated and harassed during their quest for justice.
* Mariela Mendoza was shot and wounded by unidentified gunmen outside her home in July in the Baraure de Araure sector of Portuguesa State. She had been a witness to the alleged police killings of her three brothers and prior to the shooting had received death threats.
It’s not the spelling “changes” – as you so disingenuously put it – that are annoying, it’s the cant, and wholesale embrace and unquestioning dissemination of your own dog-eared propaganda, Sparticus (sic). That and the sophomoric tone of someone talking about “neoconservative fascists whose only goal is the accumulation of wealth and power.” Are you at all capable of analysis? This is what I mean by the echo chamber, bright penny.
marc in calgary
How do you know that venezuelaanalysis.com is paid for by the government?