Blogging the democratic revolution
I kid you not. As corrupt, thuggish and stupid as they are ugly. Miguel has much more here. As an antidote, feel free to compare and contrast.
First views of Hugo Chavez’s new Marxist TV station reveals the grand unveiling of another Chavez failure – this is a real dog. The programs following the inauguration were sad and gray: verses of Eduardo Galeano, a sugary documentary on the life of Che Guevara and news totally biased in favor of the Ch????vez revolution. The commercials featured the former Colombian guerrilla leader Marulanda and the singing of a woman taking a bath and apparently calling for Al-Qaeda. Gustavo Coronel has the rest of the story here. Pathetic.
Miguel Octavio, in a vintage Miguel presentation, outlines the latest illogicalities of the Chavista revolution. My god they are stupid. Don’t have a government television station anyone wants to watch? Fine then, build a new international one. And so it goes with several more examples. Well worth reading, read it here.
Greenpeace recently told Venezuelan activist Alek Boyd it had better things to do than defend endangered species in Hugo Chavez’s slash-and-burn Venezuela. So, rare-songbird soup is back on the menu in Chavistaville. A private nature conservancy full of rare animals and plants unique to Venezuela, Hato Pinero, is under the machete by Chavez’s Marxist-Leninist land-confiscators as never before. The Los Angeles Times has the full horrible story on Hato Pinero that Greenpeace doesn’t care about here. Here are the desperate pleas from Hato Pinero’s owners about this ensuing maelstrom of environmental waste ahead: Andres Branger made pleas to save his…
Two editorials about today’s launch of Telesur, Hugo Chavez’s grand new television network designed to put the region’s free press out of business, are in today’s Chicago Tribune and Monday’s Investor’s Business Daily. (A third, here, from El Semanal Digital, is in Spanish.) The Tribune points out that Castro is deeply involved in this “news” project, a bad sign given his abysmal record on the free press, and argues that if it’s as bad as it looks, no one’s going to watch it. True. IBD warns that this is an effort to replace Venezuela’s authentic free press and give Colombia’s…
This essay, by Gustavo Coronel, tells the real lowdown on how Cuban “doctors” live in Venezuela. It’s incredibly good, compiled with all primary sources. I have never seen a better essay on this topic. It’s today’s must-read. Don’t miss it. Read it here.
It’s all over the place and in all sorts of forms. Venezuelans everywhere are protesting the remodelling of their once-great country into beggar-state failed Cuba. It’s intolerable. Our friend GatewayPundit has great photos and analysis not seen in the media. Read it here. Our friend Fausta has equally worthy stuff, plus one of the grossest pictures of the kissin’ pirates of the Caribbean you’ll ever see. Be sure to read it here.
Booker Rising, a neat blog for Black-American conservatives and moderates reports approvingly that two tiny Caribbean states, Trinidad & Tobago, and Barbados, showed the presence mind to tell Hugo Chavez and his smothering oil deal ‘no.’ Both self-respecting nations cited their national interest in different ways – Hugo Chavez’s artificial oil prices would undercut Trinidad’s authentic energy business of its own. Barbados, with its refining businesses aligned with Trinidad, wanted no part of Hugo Chavez’s kill-our-economy offer. These two tiny states stood up to two monsters in our hemisphere, Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, and should be encouraged and applauded.…
A thoughtful analysis by the excellent Cafe Hayek on The Thug Of Caracas and His Master Below In Havana is analysed very well, showing a good grasp of human nature. It also includes a link to an impressive editorial by a banker in Ithaca. Read it all here.
It’s going to be a horror show. Sumate, the voter-rights civil society group whose leadership is now headed for Hugo Chavez’s dungeons on treason charges, warns that the next election will not be fair. Hugo Chavez has gerrymandered and manipulated it already in his favor. He can’t lose. But that doesn’t mean Venezuelans aren’t trying to fight back. Daniel reports a new blog project ahead called The Sumate Files that is well worth reading for its updates on the Sumate situation and the coming problems with holding a fair election in Hugo Chavez’s New Venezuela. Read it here.
No sheet Sherlock, Papillon’s qualified to vote in Venezuela’s next election. Yeah, that guy, the Devil’s Island movie guy, Butterflies Are Free – him – dead since 1973, he’s on the Venezuelan voter rolls. It’s that bad. Don’t believe me? Read it here. Daniellllllll!!!!!!!!!!
I got this note from a reporter in Caracas: Hoy hubo una protesta de los estudiantes de la USM, por el aumento de matriculas. Fue en la entrada, en el mismo sitio que la semana pasada manifestaron por los compa?????eros asesinados. Hoy hubo mas estudiantes…. Translation: Today there was a student protest at University of Santa Maria, for the increase of registration (note: probably a student fees hike). It was at the entrance, at the same site that over the last week they demonstrated for their murdered comrades. There were many students today… Stay tuned. Weekend’s coming.
Think I’m kidding? Read what respected Miami Herald columnist Andres Oppenheimer, in a well researched article, has to say. It’s disturbing. Read it here. UPDATE: Link fixed.
Daniel, a man of real culture, gives us the lowdown on Hugo Chavez’s vast new hideous culture scheme. It’s enough to repel the lowliest Britney Spears fan, it’s that gross. It’s also expensive, vulgar, downlifting, ugly and communist. Read it here.
..and the chicks are free. Hugo Chavez is flinging money in multi-billions all over the place, like a drunk with coins burning holes in his pockets. He’s the world’s biggest spendthrift and he’s driving Venezuela straight into the ground. Miguel Octavio has the whole sordid story here. Read and weep.
I knew this would happen. Hugo Chavez’s incessant meddling with the market would lead to what it always leads to: shortages, just like Cuba. And ration cards as well. More and more, Venezuela is looking like a communist regime. The thug of Caracas is bringing hunger to Venezuela. He’s got to go.
This Investor’s Business Daily editorial, now available on Alek Boyd’s Web site, describes Sumate’s hard work of creating civil institutions in a democracy and explains how they function as a bulwark against tyranny. That’s what Sumate leader Maria Corina Machado has done, and that’s why Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez wants to put her in prison. There is nothing a tyrant fears more than a REAL revolution from below, which is what this brave woman, comparable to Martha Beatriz Roque in Cuba, is risking her freedom for. Read it here.
I want to highlight a couple of items that reflect how the Castro-Chavez alliance is squandering Venezuela’s oil revenue in order to to sow their ideological seed. I was really concerned when I first saw this article showing that Cuba is exporting its “doctors” to, of late, politically tumultuous Belize. I’m even more concerned reading that Belize will be signing on to PetroCaribe, the much hyped oil company formed by Hugo Chavez. While the attention was focused this week on the visit of Mexican President Vicente Fox and talk of a possible PEMEX gas station in Belize, the Minister Responsible…
A political corruption scandal over slush funds to supporters is deepening in Brazil, and could extend to the highest reaches of government. It’s a shame, because President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is a true revolutionary leader who means to do what’s best for Brazil. Left-leaning but fiscally responsible, he’s no Hugo Chavez. But Randy at Beautiful Horizons lists a growing litany of scandals and their knock-on effects. Could this topple the Lula government? It’s not known yet. Randy writes: …it certainly seems to me that none of this is good for Lula. While it would be catastrophic for it…
Local sources report that students from the University of Carabobo have blocked Av. Bolivar of Valencia demanding the resignation of Isaias Rodriguez, Venezuela’s Attorney General. Furthermore students of University Santa Maria’s Eastern campus, located in Puerto La Cruz, have also closed the road between the aforementioned city and Barcelona. The assassination last week of university students Leonardo Gonz????lez L????rez, Edgar Quintero Torrealba and Erick Miguel Montenegro S????nchez, by the military police (DIM), has prompted a reaction amongst young Venezuelans, who feel utterly indignant at the lack of justice and sheer abuse of power of the chavista apparatus. Demands for the…
My analysis of what is really going on at Venezuela’s universities, the backstory and implications, is here.
Daniel has located the Babes of Caracas who were out in abundance today in Venezuela. And every single one of them despises Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez to an extent we can only dream about. What is the purpose of posting such photos? To prove that the revolution is real. The winds of change blows where the young women go, the old have the cares of the world to take care of first. The young think about things like governance and other abstractions. After all, they are going to be the ones who must live with whatever result there is the…
Three students were shot dead in cold blood this week by Venezuelan police who claim they mixed the students up with some criminals they were hunting. Just like that, three lived snuffed out on a sunny street in Caracas. It was all just … another … mistake. That’s brought thousands of people into the streets this morning in Caracas. It’s one of the first big demonstrations since the demoralization of the Venezuelan opposition in the wake of the widely-believed fraudulent recall referendum on Hugo Chavez last August. The shootings of course represent the projection of Hugo Chavez’s power. So it…
Fraudster to fraudster, who could be more pleased with Iran’s stolen election than Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez himself? I guess this means he’s not the only guy at the election fraud party. Read the whole thing here.
Alek Boyd’s piece on Colombia published here yesterday has drawn a rabid reaction from a tiny shrivelled pro-Chavez news organ, which devoted scads of bandwidth to name-hurling invective. They seem to have a personal problem with Mr. Boyd. This is starting to sound like an embarassing sort of envy. By their headline, they seem to actually believe Mr. Boyd has President Bush in his pocket. They really do see him as a giant threat. Amazing! Read it here, or if you don’t want their chavista cookies and spyware, here.