Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Defender of the Fifth Republic



Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Shoot at the Opposition

Sometimes false or misleading statements can jump out of a webpage like pop-up figures in a Winnie the Pooh book. Common Dreams, a “Progressive” news site, specializes in those kinds of gross distortions that are an endless source of amusement to me. I’m not saying that they are talented writers. It’s just that they exaggerate and contort reality so far beyond recognition that it can easily drive any intelligent person into a belly ache full of laughter.

Yesterday’s webpage at Common Dreams contains an article that brings together two extremely rich comic book characters.

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone

– and –

Venezuela’s Presidente, Hugo Chavez.

In these days of pretentiously false propaganda figures who can ask for anything more? Basically the article is an open letter from Livingstone praising the Venezuelan pseudo-dictator. Titled, “Not a Difficult Choice At All - Chavez and Venezuela deserve the support of all who believe in social justice and democracy”.

I get a kick out of how Livingstone hysterically portrays Chavez as the champion of democracy!

Ohhhh where to begin? The list of anti-democratic actions by Chavez is long and the prospect of documenting them is very intimidating. I just don’t have the time to go through A to Z. Let’s just skip over the basics.

Upon assuming power Chavez fired hundreds of judges. His critics have accused him of replacing them with loyal judges who have served as his henchmen, while Chavez counters with the valid point that the justice system was in urgent need of reform. However, over the course of time the facts favor the view that Chavez is packing the courts for his own political gain.

In 2004 Chavez pushed through legislation to expand the Supreme Court from 20 to 32 justices. This allowed him to obtain a majority of Chavez supporters on the court. When the head of Human Rights Watch Americas division, Jose Miguel Vivanco, spoke out against this maneuver he was briefly detained by the Venezuelan government who condemned him of, “open and unpardonable meddling in the internal affairs of our country” and threatened to make him a “persona non grata” in Venezuela. Can you imagine if the Bush Administration performed a similar action against a human rights activist? The anti-American bias in the world’s press and public opinion becomes painfully obvious when reflecting upon this question. Not to mention the fact that it was hard enough to replace two Supreme Court judges, Bush couldn’t possibly dream of adding 12 more additional judges.

The plight of Venezuelan Judge Miguel Angel Luna is particularly illuminating. In February 2004 two truck drivers were dragged in front of him, but were not charged with any crime. The prosecutors demanded that they be jailed because they had been parked near an anti-government demonstration. Instead Judge Luna set the two men free and three days later he was fired by the president of the Supreme Court without any explanation. Upon a written appeal Luna was reinstated, only to be fired again when upholding the right of a Chavez opponent to appoint two new lawyers to represent himself.

This is just the tip of the iceberg folks. Upon assuming the Presidency, Chavez quickly consolidated his power by conducting referendums in order to completely redraft the country’s constitution in his favor. Using the state funded media; his allies were able to campaign for the Constitutional Assembly and won 120 of the 131 assembly seats.

The assembly then gave itself absolute power by setting up a judicial emergency committee with the ability to remove judges without consulting any other branch of government. When they finally got to work on the constitution they extended Chavez’s term of office by a year. Again, can you imagine the uproar if President Bush had his term of office extended?

A key provision of the new constitution allowed Chavez to centralize a vast amount of power under his control. The document set up a one-chamber legislative body that gives him the ability to dissolve congress as he wishes and to remove congressional review of military appointments.


Chavez’s new super powers allowed him to pass the infamous Enabling Act of 2000, giving him the strength that even Superman would be jealous of. For a year Chavez ruled by decree as a king or dictator would. He was invested with the authority to pass any mandate into law without approval from the National Assembly. The champion of democracy donned a suit of magical armor and bullets just bounced right off of him. He needed that magic to combat the extreme displeasure of the Venezuelan opposition.

Actually I am exaggerating, there was no magic involved. It was a three-step process.

1. Seize enormous power
2. Enrich your cronies and bribe the poor
3. Attack the freedom of speech

Chavez has many leftwing supporters in the western world. A particularly amusing website called VHeadline.com caught my eye because of its similar tone to Common Dreams. It is based in the US but dedicated to praising the Venezuelan revolution and glorifying Chavez. In an outlandish anti-Bush rant, columnist Mary MacElveen compared our President to the rise of Adolph Hitler (she saw it in a movie,... I'm serious).

MacElveen actually lowers the bar for political commentary (if that is even possible). She compares the persecution of German reporter Fritz Gerlich to Bush’s objection to the leak of the National Security Agency story by the NY Times. Gerlich was a reporter that dedicated himself to exposing how dangerous Hitler was. When Hitler seized power he imprisoned Gerlich in Dachau, the German concentration camp. About a year later Gerlich was murdered and his bloodied glasses were callously sent to his wife as proof of his death. So how could MacElveen compare Gerlich to the NY Times? The only thing that the reporters at the Times have to worry about is whether or not their press passes can get them into the Bronx Zoo free of charge.

If you recall the website she writes for is called VHeadline and they publish pro-Chavez articles like;

Chavez does not take crap from the USA. You want to play hardball, go ahead!

US State Department looking for a fight in which it might get a black eye!

Treating Venezuela as if it were the enemy does not make any sense at all

So when I began reading MacElveen’s article comparing Hitler to Bush I thought my eyes were deceiving me. Just read this quote;

“…One has only to look at the Patriot Act to know this to be true.

When Hitler came to power, he pushed for an Enabling Act which, as I have stated before, is strikingly similar and during his reign of terror he also pressured the press.”


In complete disbelief of what I was reading, I had to re-read this paragraph. After reading it a second time I thought that maybe a hacker defaced her article. I couldn’t believe that anyone could be so ignorant, she is really describing her beloved Presidente Chavez! After all, he passed his own Enabling Act to seize more power. Did she forget that he abused his office to extend his term of office, rewriting the constitution and packing the courts with his cronies?! What was this woman thinking when she wrote this article?

She goes on to describe how Gerlich witnessed the Munich Beer Hall Putsch in which Hitler attempted a coup to seize control of the Bavarian government. Did she forget that Chavez also attempted a coup against his government? Is she mad? The similarity between the two is undeniable. They both rose to national prominence as a result of their attempts to seize power by force and they both changed their strategy to take control of their governments through legal means after the failures of their coups. I guess this is to be expected from someone who bases their historical research on a made for TV movie (“Hitler: The Rise of Evil”). While Fritz Gerlich risked his life to confront Hitler’s fascist lust for power, Mary MacElveen risks her reputation to compare Bush to such nonsense. How can she be blind to the fact that her hero, Hugo Chavez, represents everything that she accuses Bush of?

The Left rallies around Chavez because they are superficial and sheep-like. They love a strong anti-American leader who can hit each and every leftwing political talking point. Chavez’s totalitarian outrages are lost in the cheer of his political rhetoric.

Getting back to the Common Dreams article, Ken Livingstone concludes by saying, “Today Venezuela is being “opposed” largely on the basis of lies...It is the duty of all people who support progress, justice and democracy to stand with Venezuela.” I would agree with his statement if he changed one word, delete opposed and replace it with “supported” and you have yourself a truthful sentence.

32 comments:

nanc said...

i'm running out of superlatives to describe your posts!

your grasp on these issues could not be more clear.

i'd say you've outdone yourself, but then you'll come out with another superb article next week. keep it up.

Mike's America said...

Common Dreams (more like Common Delusions) calls Chavez the "anti-Bush."

And you so correctly point out exactly what that means.

I posted "If Bush is Hitler, what is Chavez?"

http://mikesamerica.blogspot.com/2006/03/if-bush-is-hitler-what-is-venezuelas.html

linking to Peter Mork's rundown on what "anti Bush" means:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/03/the_man_who_controls_venezuela.html

The left goes on and on about the "democratic revolution" in Venezuela.

Jesse "Shakedown" Jackson, Cindy Sheehan, Ed Asner and the rest of the America hating left have all made pilgrimmages to Caracas.

Is it "democratic" to establish a one party state where it is a crime to insult the leader, where those who sign a petition calling for his recall from office are fired from their jobs and singled out for punishment by the police?

I have even had leftie loons commenting on my Chavez posts describing the violence directed at democratic protestors as legitimate as these people were threatening the revolution.

Loss of free speech, political violence, suppression of dissent, punishment of opponents, kidnappings and murder.

All supported by the left as legitimate.

Yet they screech about the Patriot Act and NSA "spying" and can find not a single American citizen whose civil liberties, freedom or livelihood have been harmed as a result.

This idiocy of the left needs to be exposed, as you have done. It's a major factor for why we are not more effective in the war. These people continue to propagate a propaganda which at it's core seeks the containment and defeat of our very freedom.

I know that is a stretch for some people to comprehend. How can the left, who enjoy so much freedom wish it to be taken away. It's simple: They do not intend THEIR freedom be taken away, just YOURS and MINE!

These folks need to be defeated politically before we stand a chance of winning the wider war and restoring some sense of sanity to the world.

nanc said...

oh fern - mi domando se diceste quello se fossi un troll? amo questo traduttore
il mio figlio trovato - sto spargendo le lingue straniere dappertutto
il posto! un giorno quando il mio marito e la sua squadra stavano
cercando una perdita importante, ha detto al latino-americano capo,
'mucho, agua di mucho - ha ottenuto trovare quella perdita!' devo
fuori ora spargere la buona acclamazione.

Freedomnow said...

I love Babel Fish, it proves that languages are more complicated than we realize. Here is their translation of your commment:

"I wonder if you said that one if pits a troll? I love this translator my found son - I am scattering the foreign languages everywhere the place! a day when my husband and its square were trying an important loss, has said the Latin American head, ' mucho, agua of mucho - it has obtained to find that loss!' I outside must hour to scatter the good applause."

Its not the fault of Babel fish. Web translators arent sophisticated enough to accurately translate whole sentences. At least they are very helpful for individual words.

Mike's America said...

nanc: Gue?

FN: I came across a an article in MosNews (Moscow) that Chavez has so mismanaged the countries oil wealth that he must buy oil from Russia to cover his contracts:

http://mosnews.com/money/2006/04/28/venezuelaoil.shtml

Chavez fired any oil workers (state employees) who dared to sign the recall petition against Chavez.

Let's see how long it takes for Chavez to turn Venezuela into a poor debtor nation and blame it all on American Imperialism.

elmers brother said...

FN this is well written.

Brooke said...

Fantastic read!

I just don't get whay the left wants to idolize these idiots.

I'll be blogrolling ya' later today!

nanc said...

i used: http://freetranslation.imtranslator.net/

and it was supposed to say:


oh fern - I wonder if you said that one if were a troll? I love this
translator my found son - I am scattering the foreign languages
everywhere the place! a day when my husband and his crew were trying
an important leak, has said the hispanic lead worker, "mucho, mucho agua - gotta find that leak!" I must go shower good cheer!

talk about a lame translator!

nanc said...

mike - that's what i say, "que?"

Freedomnow said...

Nanc,

I used your site and this was the translation:

I wonder if you said that one if pits a troll? I love this translator my found son - I am scattering the foreign languages everywhere the place! a day when my husband and its square were trying an important loss, has said the Latin American head, ' mucho, agua of mucho - it
has obtained to find that loss!' I outside must hour to scatter the
good applause.


You can also use http://www.freetranslation.com/ (this was the first one I ever used, I had to use it for my job)

They are all pretty much the same. Its hard to program software to translate conversation.

Freedomnow said...

I get the feeling Mike doesnt like Chavez very much. However, Mike you have to thank El Jefe because he gives us plenty to write about.

He is sort of my muse.

Thanks to everybody for dropping by and being so kind...

nanc said...

that damned translator! no wonder r.m. thought i wanted to kill him the last time i put some italian up!

FLORIAN said...

VIVA CHE GUEVARA! VIVA LA RAZA! VIVA COMANDANTE HUGO CHAVEZ! VIVA SOLIDARIDAD! OLE! OLE! OLE!

I spit fire every time I see this monster's face on a picture. Venezuela is already under totalitarian leadership and he's made his people suffer far more than they could ever have suffered under Capitalism--corrupt Latin American style.
I agreed with Pat Robertson's assesment of Mr. Chavez (if you remember what that was).

Freedomnow said...

Careful now. Pat Robertson did exactly what Chavez wanted him to do.

To rally his base Chavez spits out anti-Americanism. In order to justify this anti-American stance he tries to provoke the US into saying something that he can turn around and say, "see, I told you they are threatening me".

Its a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is how he explains why he needs armed quasi-military militia groups that he uses against his opposition.

The US isnt going to invade Venezuela any time soon. His impersonation of a state of siege is exactly what Leftists accuse Bush of doing, except the Islamic terrorist threat against the US is real.

See the 9/11 bombings, the attempted LAX 2000 bombing, the African embassy bombings, the Cole bombing, the Khobar towers bombing and other attacks around the world.

We dont have to form militias or install a semi-dictatorship to deal with real problems.

We just have to be smarter than our enemies...

Always On Watch said...

Livingstone hysterically portrays Chavez as the champion of democracy!...Ken Livingstone concludes by saying, “Today Venezuela is being opposed largely on the basis of lies...It is the duty of all people who support progress, justice and democracy to stand with Venezuela.”

What is Livingstone smoking? Or is he brain-damaged?

Typical of many a Latin American dictator, he's trying to hold power by transferring the people's anger anywhere from the point which deserves that anger.

Chavez will drive Venezuela into the ground further than it already is. But most Venezuelans whom I know love him; they're Communists and make no secret of that fact.

nanc said...

ah-oh, fern - dipippo has put up a code pink article - time to go underground - new avatar may be in order or i'll have to steal yours again...

Freedomnow said...

Only a Communist can think that oppression is freedom.

I see Nanc was right on the money about Code Pink (see her Longrange comments). Your early warning radar was in effect...

Mad Zionist said...

Communism is fast rising in Latin America. Bolivia, Venezuela and, of course, Cuba, all are all being run by Marxists today. This is another reason why immigration regulation is important. We have legitimiate immigrants trying to flee communist persecution that are being stygmatized by the jailbreak of criminals coming over the Mexican border.

Legal immigration is a boon to America, while criminals breaking into the country are a big, big problem.

beakerkin said...

Of course the familiar trolls who praise Chavez will not read this post. Weasie tries to hide his true colors but his links and posts read loud and clear.

Great post.

Freedomnow said...

MZ,

Illegal immigration is a problem, no doubt. However, 2nd generation Mexican (from legal or illegal immigrants) invariably become American.

This is not France. We truly assimilate our immigrants.

Beak,

This post is dedicated to Weazzzzz

Cheers

FLORIAN said...

Communism will be right at our DOORSTEP on July 2nd. Lopez Obrador running on the Mexican Commie ticket is way ahead in the polls. Some of his "promises" include: unlimited access to the American border for all would be migrants, Socialist change in Mexico, an increase in Military personel on the northern frontier to protect migrants, and economic ties to Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, China and Islamic nations.

Freedomnow said...

Communists have been using democracy to gain power in Latin America and will continue to do so.

We cant tell them what to do with their countries, so they will run themselves into the ground.

In five to twenty years the pendulum will swing to the right. Lets see how they like being the reactionaries.

In Russet Shadows said...

Chavez is the Latin American prototypical dictator: one man, one vote, once. Strangely, though, his court-packing technique was pioneered by FDR, to my knowledge. (Who says that leftists don't share similar techniques!)

nanc said...

finally...some peace and quiet...thank you fern for a safe haven...

nanc said...

did you see this over the weekend?
scroll down to the article "the yellow star is back" - when i tried to link it - it was gone, but brooke has it:

http://neoconcommandcenter.blogspot.com/

i did have opportunity to print it out, but left it at the office.

Freedomnow said...

I dont think FDR had any leftwing assasination or thug squads but Chavez does fit the mold of a Latin American dictator. However, since his failed coup he has learned, much like Hitler did, that democracy can be subverted from within.

However, Democracy has its own unique characteristics which will ultimately destroy his brand of leftwing fascism, but Venezuela's oil wealth will sustain his pseudo-dictatorship long past its natural lifespan.

Nanc, welcome to your safe haven. Please enjoy your stay, but be sure to wear your Christian red badge as dictated by the Iranian authorities...

nanc said...

aye-aye! i like to think of it as the red badge of courage.

nanc said...

i'm simply going to explode!

Always On Watch said...

Freedom Now,
Communists have been using democracy to gain power in Latin America and will continue to do so.

Sadly, the population of most Latin America countries is gullible in that regard. All they've ever gotten for trusting their leaders is the shaft. And it's going to get worse in this century.

nanc said...

fern - have you seen this?:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2191181,00.html#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=World

building ships out of the metal of twin towers. awesome article.

oh, and good morning!

American Crusader said...

Excellent article. Why does London keep voting for Livingstone? Can't they see what a complete moron they have for a mayor?
What kind of people would compare Bush to Hitler and then call Chavez and Ahmadinejad liberators and freedom fighters?
It won't be long before non-Muslims in Iran are forced to wear identifying colors...a particularly Nazi type of action.
Chavez has done an excellent job of following Hitler's consolidation of power after becoming the head of government.
I think both of these gentlemen read Mien Kampf to get their political ideology.

Freedomnow said...

AOW,

Communists are power hungry fascists. They bring conflict with them everywhere they go.

They accuse us of being imperialists, but look at the Latin American countries that we have had conflicts with in the last 20+ years.

Grenada is stable and free. Panama is independent and we gave them back the Canal shortly after ousting Noriega. There is no American colonialism and there are no Latin American occupations.

Puerto Rico is a territory by choice, not by force. The movement to become the 51st state is as large as the separatist block, with those desiring commonwealth status are the majority. As a Puerto Rican I am undecided. I find favor among all 3 options, but lean towards a Commonwealth or statehood.

Communists are complete liars. Anything they say is calculated to advance the opportunity to seize more power. They are obsessed with power and control.

Nanc

Yeah I saw that article. It is a very appropriate use of the steel from the world trade ctr.