Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz was in Caracas this week explaining how “Venezuela's economic growth in recent years has been `impressive.’” and “prais[ing] the South American country's success at distributing its oil income among citizens.”
As one reader wrote in, “Armchair economists may now STFU, Stiglitz in da house.” Indeed.
Somebody should really tell Condi that if you are pretending to ignore somebody to make a political statement, you’re not supposed to tell the world that you’re pretending to ignore them to make a political statement because it sort of defeats the purpose.
Of course, Foreign Policy will still play along, but that’s only because Foreign Policy is run by the Venezuelan who wrecked his country’s economy in the first place, and has understandably got a li’l political ax to grind.
According to Oil Wars, the proposed amendments to the Venezuelan constitution now include a clause banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. Awesome news, right? Suck it, Colombia!
Me I waiting to see the next move from the Vatican. Based on their past antics, I’m guessing assassination attempt. Y’know, for Jesus.
You know how your disheveled neighbor warned you about The Plan™ to merge Canada, the US and Mexico into one homogenized TexMexified nation of Esperanto-speaking pussies, buying up our hamburgers and tortillas and whatever it is that Canadians eat with our ameros after all the dollars and the FREEDOM have been BANNED? He was right. And they totally would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for Hugo Chavez! Former Mexican president Vicente Fox spilled the whole sinister scheme to Larry King:
KING: E-mail from Mrs. Gonzalez in Elizabeth, New Jersey. "Mr. Fox, I would like to know how you feel about the possibility of having a Latin America united with one currency?"Is Hugo Chavez the only man who loves America enough to defend its sovereignty against the liberals and the metric system and the New World (Dis)Order??? Don’t take my word for it: here’s the video.FOX: Long term, very long term. What we propose together, President Bush and myself, it's ALCA, which is a trade union for all of the Americas. And everything was running fluently until Hugo Chavez came. He decided to isolate himself. He decided to combat the idea and destroy the idea...
KING: It's going to be like the euro dollar, you mean?
FOX: Well, that would be long, long term. I think the processes to go, first step into is trading agreement. And then further on, a new vision, like we are trying to do with NAFTA.
Maria’s Conchita Alonso is more than just an middle-aged Cubo-Venezuelan former starlet with a fondness for bad plastic surgery and (eek) graphic exhibitionism: she’s also the sister of a real live terrorist! Alt-weekly Miami New Times printed an odd, fawning interview with Robert Alonso today, and while it’s mercifully crotch-shot free, it’s sure to make you gag in other ways.
You see, Robert Alonso is just a sweet old romantic who likes daisies and Englebert Humperdink. And this whole having to run away from the law thing is really taking a toll on his poor old wife. And besides, the terrorism was totally everybody else’s responsibility:
“Robert dubs the plan that caused him to flee his homeland La Guarimba, and says it's nonviolent. But the last time he made his pitch for revolt — in 2004 — at least 13 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in clashes. "If you don't follow the instructions, it's not my fault...”Oh, and “he's working with others to form cells in Nicaragua and Cuba.” So what does his kinda almost famous sister think about all this?
“Oh please,” she says. “Terrorists are people who don't care about anybody.”
Another compelling explanation, from America’s favorite puppet ally:
“[Colombian] President Alvaro Uribe publicly accused a Supreme Court judge of bribing a jailed warlord into testifying that Uribe plotted to murder another paramilitary chief.”
Just another day in the model democracy.
Here’s a question: How many corrections do you think the New York Times can issue for a single book review? We ask because some person named “Daniel Kurtz-Phelan,” reviewed Bart Jones’ new Chavez bio over the weekend, and it’s really…something. Really. Not just slanted politically (although a book review that ends with: “From here on, with all his enemies vanquished, Chávez will have no one but himself to blame for the empty promises of his revolution” might should raise some eyebrows) but just plain did-you-read-the-book factual errors. Here are a few:
>>> Kurtz-Phelan messes up dates, attributing recent statements from Chavez to events that happened years earlier;
>>> He praises the authors of a recently translated opposition bio of Chavez for their “access” to the president himself. Although they never met with him. Although Bart Jones did which is sort of ignored;
>>> He makes a number of statements meant to make the government look unproductive: “Unemployment remains high,” (it’s been cut in half) “poverty has fallen only with rises in the price of oil,” (nope) and “inequality” has “gotten marginally worse” (exactly the opposite). CEPR has the numbers on all this.
I’m sure there’s more, but it got depressing so I stopped counting. Feel free to send us additional inaccuracies and if they are interesting, we’ll print ‘em. BTW the reviewer, at 26 years-old, has already climbed up to the ranks of “Senior Editor” at the Council on Foreign Relations' magazine, Foreign Affairs, which, as a colleague on Capitol Hill noted, “is pretty clear evidence that he’s blowing Henry Kissinger,” which sort of cracked me up so I thought I’d share.
An American journalist was forced to flee Colombia over the weekend after pissing off President Alvaro Uribe by documenting his vast and totally obvious connections with Colombian drug cartels. Uribe responded by unleashing said cartels on the journalist and implying that the reporter impugned the name of Colombian hero/druglord/psychopathic murderer Pablo Escobar, who as we all know, used to employ Alvaro Uribe. The journalist decided it was time to leave after receiving 24 death threats in 48 hours, which may be some sort of record even for Colombia.
It’s sort of confusing, but I’m guessing this only proves why we’ve got to send zillions more dollars to Colombia or give them a favorable trade deal or something in order to stave off the growing march toward single-payer health care or whatever it is we’re fighting in the region.
Oh, And: Also this weekend, Uribe’s Cousin Mario resigned from the Senate over his “alleged” collaboration with Colombian death squads, so it's an extra super double model democracy.
From Bloomberg:
In the Orinoco Magna Reserve project, the government expects to certify more than 200 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, which would give Venezuela the biggest hydrocarbons reserves in the world.Please adjust your Doomsday Clock ahead one hour.
Viva la resistencia. BoRev is taking the weekend off to get in touch with the nature. Try not to panic, Kbai.
>>> Despite his criticism U.S. foreign policy, Sean Penn might not be an America hating terrorist .
>>> Despite its criticism of U.S. foreign policy, Venezuela is a fine vacation destination.
>>> Latin chicks love the left
.
>>> Latin American nations are sovereign entities deserving our respect.
>>> If Ecuador would only allow the U.S. to militarize it, it could become an anti-narcotic paradise like Colombia.
As he does every week at this time, Andres Oppenheimer warns us again that free-trade-hating Democrats are turning Colombian psychopath Alvaro Uribe into the meat inside a Chavez-Correa love sandwich. Or something. Ugh. Anyway Oppenheimer must not read the Wall Street Journal. Because it ain’t just the Dems, bitch:
By a nearly two-to-one margin, Republican voters believe free trade is bad for the U.S. economy, a shift in opinion that mirrors Democratic views and suggests trade deals could face high hurdles under a new president.
The red states may be redder than we thought.
The day after of the historic meeting between top diplomats from both countries, the Associated Press gave some background on how things got so bad in the first place. It’s all Venezuela’s fault, of course. Chavez “constantly is criticizing U.S. ‘imperialism’ under President Bush” while on the other hand, and “Despite deep political differences, the U.S. government has generally sought a pragmatic relationship with Venezuela.”
In the whole entire article, not one mention of those tens of millions of US dollars to create and maintain fake opposition movements in Venezuela, or that time the Bush Administration financed and trained a bloody coup against the government, but of which might be sort of germane to the discussion.
A Brazilian polling firm asked Latin American citizens to rank neighboring presidents this week. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet wound up with a 40% approval rating, Chavez followed closely with 38%, and Bush drew up the rear with a pathetic 21%. So of course the wire headline reads “Poll Shows Bush, Chavez in the Same Boat.” Um ok, except that one boat is like twice the size of the other. And he’s Latin so it’s probably thicker, too.
Egads! Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly has found an obscure caveat buried deep within the bill of rights that our country has been ignoring for the past 200 years (O.k. to be fair I think I remember it being trotted out a few times in the 1950s before the hippies came on the scene, rolled it up and smoked it). It turns out that “Dissent is only valid when based on sincere beliefs with factual back up.” And to think our great nation has been so wrong for so long.
Fortunately, O’Reilly has created a complex algorithm to help us differentiate “legitimate dissent” from “Anti-Americanism.” In his illustrative example, Bruce Springsteen criticizing the war, remains legally-protected speech (barely), while Sean Penn’s discussion of Venezuela on the David Letterman show is treason. Find out how it all works, after the jump.
Continue reading "Bill O’Rights: Fox News Rolls Out New Rules on “Speaking”" »
The State Department now has its own blog. And honest-to-God, they have named it “Dipnote.” (Dipnote!) Anyway Spokesman Scott McCormack says he’s real keen to “start a dialogue with the public” and hopes that “Dipnote will provide you with a window into the work of the people responsible for our foreign policy, and will give you a chance to be active participants in a community focused on some of the great issues of our world today.” Dipnote! Seriously.
So go ahead, ask him about the 2002 coup in the comments section. Just don’t do it from your home computer if you know what I mean.
Dipnote.
Yesterday we linked to that mock-tastic Washington Post interview with hot-hot-hot Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. Today, a reader informs us that reporter Lally Weymouth was conducting the interview on behalf of Newsweek as well as the Post (corporate media hegemony etc. etc. etc.) Ok, fine.
Interestingly, all of those unbelievably arrogant questions we complained about in the Post interview never made it into the Newsweek edition, but even weirder is that both outlets industriously edited the questions and the answers. Newsweek trimmed things in order to make the interviewer look (mercifully) smarter and less cocky, while the Washington Post’s edits aimed to make Correa look terse and hostile. Fine goals each, I’m sure, but neither is particularly journalistic. Seriously, this is weird shit. Meet you after the jump for details.
Continue reading "Editors are Awesome! Like In The Traditional Sense of the Word" »
Sean Penn was on the Late Show last night and got asked all kinds of questions about...Venezuela of course. Penn was just down there, and while Letterman has never been to Venezuela physically, his opinions are equally valid because he’s “read things and talked to people about it” and, mainly, because has his own teevee program and a well-nourished sense of self importance.
Anyway Letterman would ask questions premised on stuff he thinks he might have heard once (“But isn't he talking about nationalizing the media?”) and Penn had the opportunity to set the record straight in his own inidrect way (“I mean the loons on Fox News are broadcast there every day…”) and it’s all mildly amusing to watch, which you can do here.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is romping all over America’s Backyard™ this week, stopping off to visit such “top allies” like El Salvador and …um… “Other stops were not revealed.” Seriously. They aren’t going to tell us what countries he’s going to.
Scary, right? Or at least intriguing? Maybe something that a reporter might want to look into? Haha J/K.
Without any actual information, the crack journalists turn to the "analysts" who give us their super-informed "analysis." And so as always, the visit is maybe probably “aimed at countering the growing influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the region,” because, as whipsmart analyst Michael Shifter notes, “The worrisome issue for the United States is, what is Chavez doing and what are his plans.” 'N stuff. And America's long slog toward borderline retardation continues...
>>> Eva Golinger interviews Noam Chomsky.
>>> Greg Grandin reflects on the 40-year anniversary of the assassination of Che Guevara, in Bolivia.
Medea Benjamin and Deborah James reflect on the 1-week anniversary of the NY visit of Evo Morales, who runs Bolivia.
>>> Oil Wars reviews Greg Wilpert’s excellent book on Venezuela.
>>> Media Matters excerpts Bart Jones’s excellent book on Venezuela.
>>> VHeadline writer gets thrown out of a NYC Venezuelan restaurant for carrying Bart Jones’s excellent book on Venezuela.
>>> New-blog-on-the-block PopDem compares the constituent assemblies of Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia.
>>> New-ish blog-on-the-block NoCafta translates the fabulous pic above for you.
The Post ran an interview today with our hot throbbing mancrush Rafael Correa asking super condescending questions in the way only a U.S. journalist would be arrogant empowered enough to ask, like “why aren’t you running your country more like X?” and “wouldn’t it be smarter if you did it like Y?” God bless Raf, who apparently is as patient as he is foxy, for not snapping back with “Hey I know, wouldn’t it be smarter if you let me run my own fucking country and you just stuck to writing stories for your little newspaper, hmmm?” which I guess is why we’ll never be president of anything.
All I really need to know I learned from AOL Sports headlines.
>>> The Washington Post thinks it’s so cute that Venezuelans want to make movies like we do.
>>> The Miami Herald thinks it’s fascinating that “half a dozen left-wing Latin American presidents” came up to New York with “agendas” and “ideas” like real world leaders.
>>> The Bush Administration thinks it’s adorable that Costa Ricans actually thought that they would let them “vote” on a trade agreement.
Remember how the Bush Administration “decertified” Venezuela—whatever that means—for “failing to cooperate in the war on drugs”? And how Venezuela was all like, “look we would have cooperated if your drug agents weren’t the ones dealing half the drugs in Venezuela?” And the Bush Administration was like “bullshit you’re making that up”?
Well, heh heh. Earlier this week a plane went down in the Yucatan Peninsula, carrying 2.3 tons of cocaine of Colombia to the U.S. And it turned out to be “one of the planes chartered to the CIA for the renditioning of kidnapped prisoners.”
UPDATE: Apparently the coke belongs to Mexico's most notorious drug lord, natch, and like other former CIA planes turned drug transporters before it, the jet "underwent a series of rapid ownership transfers" in the weeks leading up to the crash. It's a Grade A CIA coke jet mystery I tell ya.
