Chavez’s Censorship (washingtonpost.com) — There is something shallow and false about the so-called “Progressives” in this country. The out-and-out promotion of illegal immigration and their love, nee fawning, over the regime of dictator/clown Hugo Chavez in Venezuela makes you wonder how anyone with any sense of conscience can even call themselves progressives.
This comes to mind as a chain-email has been floating around the net promoting the boycott of Citgo, the Venezuelan-owned oil company that pumps gas in many East Coast states. Chevez has openly called for the overthrow of the US Governement and destruction of the USA altogether. Apparently this is very appealing to the progressives. How can any American support this sort of character in any way unless they want to kill off America and themselves? Bush will be gone in 2008. Do you want the country turned over to Marxists after that? Or what is it these folks want?
I mention this because as some Americans are trying to Boycott Citgo, the Progressives last year instituted a BUY-cott. Buy MORE Citgo gas. This BUY-Cott was initiated by Jeff Cohen
You’ll note that the BUY-cott was called for about two months after the Washington Post and other newspapers lamented the end of the free press in Venezuela. An excellent column about the onerous laws appears here. This includes a 30 month prison sentence (with no trial) for printing anything the government doesn’t like. The following is an excerpt.
Start with Article 147: “Anyone who offends with his words or in writing or in any other way disrespects the President of the Republic or whomever is fulfilling his duties will be punished with prison of 6 to 30 months if the offense is serious and half of that if it is light.” That sanction, the code implies, applies to those who “disrespect” the president or his functionaries in private; “the term will be increased by a third if the offense is made publicly.”
There’s more: Article 444 says that comments that “expose another person to contempt or public hatred” can bring a prison sentence of one to three years; Article 297a says that someone who “causes public panic or anxiety” with inaccurate reports can receive five years. Prosecutors are authorized to track down allegedly criminal inaccuracies not only in newspapers and electronic media, but also in e-mail and telephone communications.
What’s odd is that Cohen is the founder of FAIR — a site that harps on fairness and accuracy in reporting. On his own site he brags about having supported that crackpot vegan Kucinich for President as his communicatiosn director. Man, this is one screwed up group of people over on the Democratic side of the aisle. It amazes me more and more every day.
related links:
Possible root of the Citgo Boycott
Anyone who offends with his words or in writing or in any other way disrespects the President of the Republic or whomever is fulfilling his duties will be punished with prison of 6 to 30 months if the offense is serious and half of that if it is light.
Are you sure that is Venezuala and not the US? Seems like we are heading for that kind of legislation here.
The far left and right want the same things. To impose their will upon the rest of society by any means necessary. Whatever political or economic system they embrace is irrelevant. They only want their opinions and actions to be free from persecution. Neither side can be trusted to protect democratic and economic liberty. Their precious ideology is more important they anyone’s freedom. I’m not surprised by the actions of these “progressives”. These are the same people that idolize Che Guevara with their t-shirts and posters, completely ignoring the fact that he was a murderous sociopathic authoritarian tyrant. These same type of people also embraced Pol Pot. Remember that Mr. Chomsky?
These BUY-cotts have been around since before time. Is it just me, or does it seem like a cheep trick to move markets? (S.E.C I’m talking to you!)
Gas is a commodity, which our consumption of can not be changed unless structural changes in the economy are implemented. If you do anything other than buy gas at it’s lowest possible price, then you do nothing other than make “somebody” richer.
Stop pretending that under current conditions we can do anything about our oil situation! In the long run, high oil prices will change our dependency, but till then it’s going to hurt the pocketbook. The faster the price increases the better, because it means all the quicker we can stop green-house emissions. (However, we will need to address global dimming, which is another issue)
It’s not just Chavez, it’s anyone that hates the U.S..
I recently read an article in the London Times about a group of * leftists* that gathered in a part of London called Eusten nd wrote up a petition to be circulated among other leftists renouncing the lefts love of dictatorships and criminal goverments.
There is also this great article by Christopher Hitchins a leftist …..follow the link for a good look at what the left has become.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2157754.html
I am as annoyed that certain people think the “Left” is some homogeneous group. Chavez no more represents me on the left then Saddam Hussein represented the “Right”. I too deplore those that impose their will on others in the name of a cause.
Shall I now rant about how Pat Roberts is representative of all the fascists conservatives ? Doesn’t he speak for all conservatives? Don’t all true conservatives worship Hitler?
Pedro, were the right wing death squads that roamed Central and South America any better then what Chavez is doing now? Has he not given medical care, food, and housing that before lived in the worst squalor? Has he not been faced with insurgencies and attempted coups from those on the right that want to continue the status quo? Now I don’t know everything about Venezuela, but I do understand that life there has improved immensely for the impoverished and disadvantaged.
Che Guevara a murderous sociopath? Man, somebody has been listening to Pat Roberts and Rush Limbaugh too much. Guevara fought those who murdered the indigenous Indians and peasants throughout various Latin American countries. Most of those dictatorships were set-up and financed by the Eisenhower and later Kennedy and Johnson administrations. True, he was a devout communist, but then his enemies were devout fascists. So I guess his fighting fascists was worse then wholesale slaughter of Indians by the death squads.
BTW, Mussolini invented Fascism and was never a communist.
Mussolini was most certainly a Communist before he changed to Fascism. Books: They’re not just for the pictures.
Guevara helped murder tens of thousands of people to ‘free’ the underclass, in the process setting up authoritarian governments that have been raping and pillaging South America ever since.
Communism starved and murdered hundreds of millions of people last century, and keeps on churning out the corpses. But hey, at least the trains run on time, right?
Rube is apt. You must have worn out more than a few crayons coming up with conclusions that no reputable historian would support.
Do books exist that prate the same crap — a few. Like the Protocols of Zion, they’re relegated to the shelves set aside for populist preconceptions.
Mussolini alone — of your agglomeration — thoroughly developed his analysis of Fascism as Corporatism. Can you spell G-O-O-G-L-E?
Sorry for flaming this troll, folks. But, then, we don’t always have to be tolerant, do we?
Rube
Ok, I’m calling you on this one. Show your total ignorance and give me a reference where Guevara murdered thousands of people. I know, the Hudson Institute has dozens of them. Haliburton even produced several pamphlets about his atrocities. Murdoch’s news empire has written some tales. The CIA wrote the definitive about Che Guevara actions. Oh, wait, those are your references !!!
Secondly. Communism didn’t kill millions of people last century. Millions died at the hands of those calling themselves communists, but they were just despot dictators. Yes, I mean Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot among others.
Let’s all buy our oil from the Saudis instead!!
“Man, this is one screwed up group of people over on the Democratic side of the aisle.”
Hmm, what are the odds that most of these folks voted for Nader back in ’00 and earned themselves the GOP Medal of Honor?
the far left is as screwed up as the far right and is not representative of the mainstream opinion of either US political party.
when the right calls the left fascist.
Perhaps things are defined differently elsewhere, but generally Mussolini’s policies were leftwing with the government control of the economy.
Without linking to all the *unbiased* left wing sites or the *unbiased* right wing sites. Pedro is actually far more correct than Mr. Fusion.
The offical unemployment rate for the country is 12.3 %….the offical rate of inflation is 16%……47% of the population lives below the offical poverty line…..the median income in 2004 was 6400.00 a year…..meaning 50% of the population earns less…..the top 10% earn 35% more than the bottom 10% of the poulation.
In 2003, under Chavez, the rate of growth dropped a staggering 9.1%, in 2004 it dropped 8.9% and 2005 was 7.9%….2006 should see positive growth due to the high oil prices. In 2000 the rate of growth was 6.7%…..in 2001 it was 6.9%, the year Chavez was elected.
You should check out my link Mr. Fusion, your one of the people it talks about, and it’s written by a liberal/lefty.
“Communism didn’t kill millions of people last century. Millions died at the hands of those calling themselves communists…” WTF?
If you’re going to be a Communist, at least be honest about what it really involves.
Guevara played a big part in the ‘purges’ in Cuba that occurred between 1959 and 1965. He ran the infamous La Cabaña Fortress prison. Landowners, political dissidents, and aristocrats were rounded up and executed, or sent off to labor camps to starve. Then, 1965 in the Congo, and 1965-1966 in Bolivia.
This article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism describes how Mussolini started out as a Marxist. You’ll like it, Mr. Fusion, it’s free.
@AB CD:
Over here in Europe, being ‘Right Wing’ refers to your nationalistic tendencies, restriction on immigration, etc. American-style Right Wing, aka Laissez-faire economics, fits weirdly into the economic picture somewhere in the middle, e.g. the Liberalen (FDP) here in Germany.
You can’t blame Chavez for being paranoid — The U.S. government openly supported a coup attempt against him. The U.S. has a long, long history of toppling governments who dare to go against the economic interests of the big corporations who generally run the U.S. government.
And another thing — there are PLENTY of us in the U.S. who think BushCo has committed several impeachable offenses and is a disgrace to America. We’d love to see him gone too!
Rube, don’t you know that Communism is a great system of government, it just hasn’t been tried yet?
Here’s Merriam-Webster’s definition:http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=fascism
Though, when the phrase was coined, Mussolini has been noted to say that fascism is the merger of corporations and government.
@Mr Fusion
You’re right, I give up. Guevara went around the 3rd world for 10 years giving everybody puppies and ice cream. My bad.
As far as wikipedia goes: Somebody actually edited the Mussolini passage out *as we were discussing it*. That wouldn’t have been you, would it? That’s pretty creepy, dude.
Here’s the history.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fascism&diff=prev&oldid=51193495
@Roc
Sounds pretty leftist to me…
@AB CD
Well, I for one think it’s time to give it the ol’ college try!