Miscellaneous T
I tend to assume that most of you also read This Modern World (the comic & the site) regularly, but for those of you who missed it, go check out Tom Tomorrow’s hilariously brutal takedown of Bill O’Reilly :
The strip was also the subject of a dramatic reading by Keith Olbermann.
A lot of people are snarkily pointing to the existence (and results) of last weekend’s Venezuelan elections as proof that Hugo Chavez isn’t a dictator. Point taken, but Bush Administration bluster aside, let’s not lose sight of the fact that Chavez’s attempt to amend the constitution to give himself “emergency powers” was a step in that direction. This former coup leader has milked the 2002 coup attempt for everything it’s worth. As far as I’m concerned, Chavez is just a left-wing version of George Bush. The world will be better off when both men are no longer in power.
My favorite part of last week’s Clinton hostage coverage? The shot that made it look like the swat team was going to take out Santa :
The immaturity of the Clinton campaign’s kindergarten attacks on Obama is stunningly lame. We’re supposed to believe that Obama is a cunning political manipulator because he wrote an essay titled “I Want To Become President” when he was five? If he wanted to be a fireman or an astronaut would that make him a flip-flopper? Equally weak is that they’re not trying to play it off as a subtle joke. How stupid do they think we are?
Finally, here’s an old Gahan Wilson strip that perfectly captures the sycophantic chumminess that has destroyed modern journalism.
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There are few major differences between Chávez and Bush. Primarily, there is Chávez’s support among the majority of the overwhelming majority of the Venezuelan population. Chávez is consistently elected by roughly 2/3 of the voters. It is also important to remember that much of what passes for information about Chávez comes to us through the privately owned media of Venezuela, which are uniformly opposed to the Chávez government.
The echoing attempts by our own corporate media to portray Chávez as a dictator betray more than just their laziness. If one understands Latin American history, then one understands that the elite of the U.S. have long believed our southern neighbors to be little more than raw materials to be exploited for our rapacious economic consumption. Our involvement in Latin America has been little more than one subversion of democracy after another (usually involving horrible violence carried out directly or by proxy). That our corporate media would simplify the proposals to amend the Venezuelan constitution as a Chávez power grab says more about the ideological intent of our media than it does about Chávez and what he represents.
(Good summary of the actual proposals– as opposed to the corporatist propaganda– can be found here.)
Comment by Church Secretary — December 11, 2007 @ 2:39 pm
A lot of the information I get about Chavez comes from relatives who live in Venezuela and actually see the effects of Chavez’s so-called “Bolivarian Revolution”. He may talk a good game about helping the poor, but he’s too busy bitching about the United States and consolidating power to actually address the problems he’s promising to solve.
Speaking of subversions of democracy, you know your buddy Chavez led a military coup against a democratically elected government, right?
Since when does Human Rights Watch count as “corporate media”? Also, I find it funny that you decry “corporatist” propaganda by linking to a site that’s little more than pro-Chavez propaganda. The “analysis” found on the site’s Bolivarian Project has pro-government spin that would make Fox News blush.
Comment by greg — December 11, 2007 @ 4:18 pm
Point: Chavez won all his elections.
Point: Chavez apparently respects his constitution.
It sounds more like you are implying that Chavez is like Rudi or is Rudi like Chavez? Measuring Bush against either of the two is like trying to measure fresh cow plop with a micrometer.
Comment by shirt — December 11, 2007 @ 9:03 pm
I’m not saying Chavez is like anybody. Disliking Hugo Chavez and disliking George W. Bush aren’t mutually exclusive.
Anyone willing to overthrow a democratically elected government through military force has an odd way of showing “respect”.
Comment by greg — December 12, 2007 @ 11:31 am