Venezuela Superthread- Merged

[DBA]

More Cox and Forkum cartoons and commentary here.

 

[COBRA-6]

He's just doing what he was elected to do....

Too bad about the Chomsky book though...kinda flushed his credibility a bit...

but it plays well in the sticks!  ;D

 

[paracowboy]

He's just doing what he was elected to do.

uuhhh, yeeeaaahhhh, about that. Might want to take a closer look at those elections, how they were run, and how he's managed to gain such a support base to draw from. Might want to take a look at the various organizations he funds in neighbouring countries, and who he chooses as friends and allies, too.

 

[tomahawk6]

At least in the US the appearance of Chavez and Ahmadinejad at the UN has let the public see what the administration is up against. Both Chavez and Ahmadinejad sounded very much like the democrat opposition and the speeches were downplayed by the MSM. The poll numbers next week for Bush may well go alot higher as a result. Increasingly the democrats have aligned themselves with terrorists and our enemies which dont play well with the public.

The public once again were able to see how far the UN has gone in its anti-americanism. France, Russia and China seek to styme the US at every turn. Just like Iraq they are going to force Bush into military action because the diplomatic options were blocked. Possibly they feel that the US dare not attack Iran. Either the US allows Iran to gain nuclear weapons or it doesnt. That is the choice. Sanctions wont be allowed. Now Egypt is making noises that they too want to go nuclear. The world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place when the self interest of a few nations may send the entire world down the slippery slope to armgeddon.

 

[paracowboy]

Oh god. How can we accuse him of electoral fraud when we (the Western world) go around the world setting up sham democracy in places like Haiti and Afghanistan and Iraq? 

sham democracy? I was there.

Get off this site.

 

[Kirkhill]

...but the social, political, and cultural achievements of the Bolivarian project are undeniable.

Except by folks like a buddy of mine from Venezuela that described for me the advantages of driving old Toyota Corollas and practicing how to pull the cocked and locked automatic from under your thigh (where you keep it while driving), fire through the windshield and simultaneously slam the car into reverse and back away from the barrier erected by roving bands of kidnappers at high speed.

He now lives in the US.  Where he gets to laugh at Hugo and worry about his family.  In Venezuela he only gets to worry about the family.

 

[2 Cdo]

sham democracy? I was there.

Get off this site.

C'mon para, you know all we're doing is blowing up villages and bayoneting babies! :

Decoy as soon as you put thoughts to paper, you only confirmed how truly ignorant you are!

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Oh god. How can we accuse him of electoral fraud when we (the Western world) go around the world setting up sham democracy in places like Haiti and Afghanistan and Iraq?

Proof, please.  You claim it, you prove it.

I tend to believe the word of several of my good friends who were ACTUALLY in Afghanistan, ACTUALLY observing the election.  They all told me that it was a remarkably clean election.  Not just by "Third World" Standards, but by our own standards as well.

You sure that being a member of the CF is the right place for you, Decoy?  We tend to take a more thoughtful line in this Organization than the remarkably un-nuanced "the-west-especially-george-bush-is-evil" mantra of yer typical first year arts student (I apologize in advance to any first year arts students that don't deserve that label).

Do some damned research.  The real kind.  Beyond the NDP's website.

 

[COBRA-6]

I think someone has watched "the revolution will not be televised" and believed it...  :

x-ray of a lie

 

[the 48th regulator]

Drive by poster, fires off comments, doesn't back them up with fact.

And to think decoy has had work published, I guess the Publisher allowed her to write and not question her information....

Still waiting for an answer in another thread decoy.

dileas

tess

 

[Infanteer]

Oh god. How can we accuse him of electoral fraud when we (the Western world) go around the world setting up sham democracy in places like Haiti and Afghanistan and Iraq?

:clown:

 

[KevinB]

Hey put your money where your mouth is take a trip and visit some of those shitholes you cast comments about.  Many of us here have served in those places and youur effectively pissing on us, friends we have lost and all of those efforts.
Oh and

 

[the 48th regulator]

Oh god. How can we accuse him of electoral fraud when we (the Western world) go around the world setting up sham democracy in places like Haiti and Afghanistan and Iraq? As much as I agree that those regions need democratic systems, we cannot claim that they have political legitimacy as of yet.  At least Chavez does.

Don't forget the others we set up Germany, Japan, France.....

dileas

tess

 

[Spidron]

Interesting thread. It would have died out by now if it were not for a couple folks who would like to blame the Americans for the problems arising out of a few thousand years of world history. You have to wonder how such self-righteousness came to be? When did the discussion of US foreign policy become so 'personal' to people at arms lengths. Has emotion clouded judgement so badly that some people believe what they want to believe regardless of what logic they are presented with? The 'big lie' has once again found a voice in Iran and I can only hope that someday my kids won't be breathing radiation while the self-righteousness insist the US should have done something.

 

[Hexx]

I'd actually think both sides are to blame. Yes Chavez has gone from making somewhat valid points to making himself look like
a lunatic, but why are people surprised that he doesn't like the US and is making friends with other countries?
The US officially seemed to support the coup in which he was ousted, before the people they thought would support his replacements demonstrated en masse against them
Chavez seems to thing the US has tried to assassinate him, and while certainly possible it's nothing more than a paranoid delusion, it's not beyond the realm of possibility
that it has happened.The Venezuelan elections were legitimate, yet the US funds (or has funded) opposition parties...

Real world politics make what both sides have done acceptable, to say that Chavez or the US is "in the right" is kinda silly.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Chavez, like Mugabe, presents a wonderful opportunity.  Simply leave the man alone.  Spend not a dime to support him or a dime to hinder him.  His achievements or lack thereof will speak for themselves, and there will be no-one else to blame.  If Venezuela under Chavez does not become a good example, it can serve as the proverbial horrible warning.

 

[Centurian1985]

Hey Colin P, took me a while to find this thread again.

Based on some recent articles, looks like the Chavez has stepped up his anti-Americanism and is leaning farther into the neo-Communist camp.  Looks less and less like simple posturing and rhetoric.  You read anything lately that would put him into renegade territory yet?

 

[Colin Parkinson]

I haven't been watching it closely, but hear rumblings internally about failed programs. always a bad sign when a politican spends more time and money abroad then at home.

 

[time expired]

Decoy
You can throw away your grotty old Che G. t shirt and buy a Chavez t shirt as he will probably
become the new hero of the lunatic left. For a while.
                      Regards

 

[warspite]

Maybe it's just me being paranoid, but historically roughly every hundred years or so a major war comes along. By major I mean a sink or swim war, i.e if you lose, you lose everything. The last such war was WWII( no disrespect to the wars since just that if we ever lost in the Persian gulf, Afghanistan, Korea, etc. we would still be here, I'm not including the cold war because it never went hot, etc). It's been nearly a century and here we are again with a group of potential foes.
Isn't it true that history loves to repeat itself?

Edit: Please ignore this post it was for a different thread and isn't finished, no idea how it got here but my internet did screw up while I was writing this.