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Monday, September 11, 2006

Chavez Is Like Bush?  NPR Whitewashes Venezeula’s Commie Dictator Problems

Dumb...

And then there are the so-called Chavez "foot soldiers" -- loyalists who act as neighborhood enforcers, ferreting out dissent and punishing those who criticize the president and his policies.

By most standards there is freedom of the press and freedom of expression in Venezuela.
But national mood is volatile. According to Chavez, you are either with the revolution or against it. In terms of rhetoric, at least, Chavez has much in common with his archnemesis, President Bush. Divorces have even been blamed on disagreements over Chavez.


Hope someone is cushioning Cindy Sheehan for this news lest her head explode.

On a somewhat related topic, note the total disconnect on what freedom of speech and expression means in the bolded section. In one breath this reporter, Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, tells us about Chavez's foot soldiers punishing political dissenters and then in the very next paragraph tells us that by "most standards" Venezuela has free speech and free expression.

I'm sorry, but a place where speaking out on politics could get you a stomping from a Presidential "foot soldier" is not by any stretch of the imagination an oasis of freedom by any standard, let alone "most standards."

Honestly, this would be funny if it weren't so stupidly vile.

Comments

Avatar for Dave

I’m sorry, but a place where speaking out on politics could get you a stomping from a Presidential “foot soldier” is not by any stretch of the imagination an oasis of freedom by any standard, let alone “most standards.”

ABC very nearly got “stomped” by the government for speaking out on politics. We’re still “free” though.
Dave on September 11, 2006 at 06:56 pm
Rob
Rob
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Oh come on Dave.  Are you honestly going to defend what’s going on in Venezuela by trying to equate it to the PAth to 9/11 thing?

That’s just stupid.  Get serious.


When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

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Rob on September 11, 2006 at 06:59 pm
Avatar for 2Hotel9

davey, which party was breaking out the hob-nailed boots? And which party was calling for open discussion?

2Hotel9 on September 11, 2006 at 07:01 pm
Avatar for Dave

davey, which party was breaking out the hob-nailed boots?

The Democrats.

And which party was calling for open discussion?

The Republicans.

Rob:

Are you honestly going to defend what’s going on in Venezuela by trying to equate it to the PAth to 9/11 thing?

No. What’s going on in Venezuela is lamentable. I’m just pointing out that we in America are not as free as you apparently believe--that, in all non-anarchist socieites, “freedom” is a relative term, not an absolute one.
Dave on September 11, 2006 at 07:05 pm
Avatar for 2Hotel9

Oh, boohoo Willie Jeff ain’t free to lie his ass off and tell everybody he was the greatest terrorist hunter in all human history. Get real, infanticide boy.

2Hotel9 on September 11, 2006 at 07:15 pm
Avatar for Vene Pana

Incredible...up there with the top ten stupid quotes of the year.

Vene Pana on September 11, 2006 at 07:18 pm

Dave: “ ABC very nearly got “stomped” by the government for speaking out on politics. We’re still “free” though.”

Which “government” is that, Dave?  The one elected by the people, or the one trying to grab power by any means possible?  It wasn’t “the government”, Dave, it was the Dem Party and a former President and his squad of lawyers, which, if you have noticed, have free speech rights, or else they couldn’t have done what they did.  You have it wrong, as usual.  Had this been Venezuela, the head of the govt would have squashed them like bugs.  Get the difference?
Maybe you had better kick that habit of trying to make equivalences; it ain’t workin’ for you.


If life doesn’t begin at conception, why do they call it birth control?

robert108 on September 11, 2006 at 10:57 pm
Avatar for pomerdorgrad

Those passages stuck me like a long, steel needle in Mike Douglas’ eye last night. You can conceivably say that Bush believes if you are not with America in the war against terrorism, you are against us in that war. But the Chavez dichotomy is with respect to domestic political forces.

And did you notice whom the story used as critics of Chavez? A young communist and an unemployed woman in her 30s. There’s an entire middle class and upper class that has been oppressed, and as you noted, thousands of political opponents. What a shoddy story.

pomerdorgrad on September 12, 2006 at 05:03 am
Avatar for tom

a man trys to do standup at the U.N., media clowns attack-

like when “devil Bush” scarred the heck owtta the german

chancellor

tom on September 23, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Avatar for beeps

Just watch. After wrecking the country and driving already poor people to the very edge of existence--people will blame it all on America.

beeps on August 16, 2007 at 11:25 am
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