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WESTERN MEDIA AHEAD OF CURVE
Antony Loewenstein last month:
The Western media characterises Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez as a dictator (principally because he doesn’t subscribe to a Washington-centric worldview.)
Actually, Chavez’s worldview is extremely Washington-centric; the world’s leading Castro kiss-up is completely obsessed with George Bush. Perhaps Antony meant to express himself differently. In any case, that characterisation of Chavez just became slightly more obvious:
Venezuelan legislators have voted unanimously to grant leftist President Hugo Chavez initial approval to rule by decree for 18 months.
The move comes a week after he began a second six-year term, vowing to seek to become president for life.
Legislative president Cilia Flores says the Bill authorises Mr Chavez to “rule by decree ... with the force of law”.
(Via Dr Sam)
UPDATE. Antony writes:
The Australian media have a long way to go [online] principally because - and I’ve heard this from any number of prominent reporters - they don’t think they have to explain themselves to anybody, let alone a faceless public. But it’s this increasingly active public that has already decided such arrogance should be punished (by not buying the product).
Heh. Barely anybody buys Antony’s product, even when he isn’t selling it. Despite massive media promotion, only 248 visitors drop by Antony’s site every day. Possibly his arrogance is being punished.
How many mass graves till the left starts saying “He implimented it wrong! Give us another country to try it out on”
Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 01 20 at 09:34 AM • permalinkZoe, Andrea’s plans is to become President for Life of the VRWC. She’s amassing an armory of weapons to help with her takeover. I told Karl this and made my case that she must be stopped by any means necessary. She has killer bees! That’s a biological weapon for crying out loud. And they’re mean fuckers too. But Karl just smiles. He smiles!
(wronwright cringes)
Lately I’m been getting wind of certain strange developments. Killer squirrels in Russia. Killer owls in London. Jack Russell terriers running amuck. My sources tie all this to evil machinations originating in: Orlando, Florida. Either Disney World is making a move against Busch Gardens or Andrea’s evil hands have been at work.
It’s in preparation for this that I had to borrow Saddam’s WMD. All of it, all the canisters, germs, poisons, a few nuclear warheads.
I will eventually put them back, when I’m done with them. But I need them until the Andrea Threat is removed. For the sake of mankind of course. If someone wanted to sing a song of heroism for me, I would not be adverse to it.
Posted by wronwright on 2007 01 20 at 09:39 AM • permalinkSomeone defended Chevez on the grounds that capitalism hasn’t worked very well for the people in South America so they are entitled to try something else. But apart from Chile there is not much free market capitalism on offer, it is mostly “crony capitalism” where special interests use the state apparatus for their own benefit. Nothing like free trade under the rule of law. Until these leftist economic illiterates get the difference between crony capitalism and the market liberal order they will never understand what is going wrong in places like South America and Africa. So they will keep backing disasters like Mugabe (remember how popular he used to be? Even Malcolm Fraser liked him. Actually that should have been a red light!).
Either Disney World is making a move against Busch Gardens or Andrea’s evil hands have been at work.
Gotta be Andrea. Disney uses ninjas in animal costumes, not real animals.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 01 20 at 09:56 AM • permalinkMayhaps Ant should move to Venezuela, and strike up a relationship with Chavez. There’s nothing like getting in on a scam at the ground floor.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2007 01 20 at 10:29 AM • permalinkAnd so it begins, Venezuelan society begins its downward decline. Each incremental reduction in the standard of living will be blamed on US economic policy. The step by step curtailment of individual liberties which will occur over the decades, will be explained away as neccessary to prevent yankee imperialism.
When we are long gone, a new generation will say “enough is enough” and probably (but not neccessarily) shed blood, to bring Venezuela back to a position from which it has only recently departed.
And when that happens, most of those who today support Chavez will act like they knew he was an arse all along.
#6 And also, Rafe, there’s a huge, complicated and corrupt bureaucracy that makes running a proper, profitable business almost impossible. Something that was pointed out by a pro-reform South American economist just a few years ago in a book that was quite popular in conservative circles. I can’t recall the gentleman’s name or its title, I’m not a student of economics, but someone here will undoubtedly know. (Or check out the Cato or Von Mises web sites.)
BTW, ‘dictator: one whose word is law.’
Posted by andycanuck on 2007 01 20 at 11:15 AM • permalink(Smiles at wronwright’s cute antics, continues to work on Feline Operative Task Force Alpha tactics.)
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 01 20 at 11:52 AM • permalinkWronwright goes forth as David,
to bring down the cruel Adminimistress,
we cheer, we sing, we drink cheap beer,
we watch from a safe distance.We hope he wins the battle,
we hope he he will prevail,
and bring italics never ending and bold that never fails,We shall cheer him from the sidelines,
a hero to the end,
He has our hopes, he has our dreams and
support we do pretend,We not shall not join him in the fight,
We are to scared to act,
The reign of Harris lasts for good, her rule will never end.#11 Andy: You’re probably referring to The Other Path, by Hernando de Soto, which outlined the many bureaucratic obstacles to genuine capitalism in Peru. The book had a great influence on politicians and intellectuals who were trying to establish genuine economic freedom.
You and Rafe are both spot-on. It has been said that the trouble with South America is that there have been capitalists but not capitalism.
And I extend to Mr Chavez the traditional invitation made famous by our own Infidel Tiger: gargle my gonads, punk.
# Rafe, Malcolm Fraser STILL loves Mugabe! He has been challenged a number of times to denounce the Mugabe regime and still refuses to do so, though a denunciation by such an “old friend” might well encourage the brave and embattled people trying to end the monster’s reign. Even the African Union is now attacking Mugabe’s terror, torture, etc. but not our Malcolm. His self-justifying speeches still portray his role in the installation of Mugabe as something to be proud of.
Let’s see, dictatorial powers. Recent moves to nationalize industries. Ritual denunciations of the U.S. What’s next on the leftard hit parade?
He still wants to cynically use religion to curry favor with the proles, so it’s not the persecution of the church.
So I’m guessing it’s the eradication of the vestiges of free press.
Or it might be outlawing of other poltiical parties.
Or declaring himself generalissimo.I’m torn on the issue.
Bravely bold Sir Wronwright
Rode forth from Camelot.
He was not afraid to die,
Oh brave Sir Wronwight.
He was not at all afraid
To be killed in nasty ways.
Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Wronwright.He was not in the least bit scared
To be mashed into a pulp.
Or to have his eyes gouged out,
And his elbows broken.
To have his kneecaps split
And his body burned away,
And his limbs all hacked and mangled
Brave Sir Wronwright.His head smashed in
And his heart cut out
And his liver removed
And his bowls unplugged
And his nostrils raped
And his bottom burnt off
And his pen—Cheers
Posted by J.M. Heinrichs on 2007 01 20 at 01:32 PM • permalinkHow many mass graves till the left starts saying “He implimented it wrong! Give us another country to try it out on”
There can never be enough mass graves in the third world for a true progressive. Hell, even Marx presumed the ‘nonwestern’ races would ‘disappear’ under true communism.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 01 20 at 01:40 PM • permalinkI fear Ant suffers from ‘Delusions of Adequacy.’
Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2007 01 20 at 02:31 PM • permalinkThose damn ads from that fuckfaced Joe Kennedy and “Our Good Friends from Venezuela” for assisting the poor in the US with heating oil make me grind my teeth in rage.
Oh, how I hate the Kennedys! They drive drunk—the cops give them a lift home! They kill their women—and are voted into office again! They actively work against freedom and democracy—and journalists perform scriptofellatio on them! ARGH!
Wronwright.
Dont go to her blog (she who must be obeyed), shes establishing a cover story for the attack cats.
“Trying to settle them down”... a likely story.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 01 20 at 05:48 PM • permalinkGee, how long before the World Bank forgives any and all future defaults before they occur—which defaults you can bank on, of course. For humanitarian reasons, of course.
Is there any subject about which Ant isn’t a certified idiot. (No question mark. Its a statement in the form of a question—strictly rhetorical.)
Antony Loathenstein -Is he becoming our very own Fisk-in-Residence?
#18 McAnzac, one reason Fraser goes soft on Mugabe is he and his family are heavily into ‘humanitarian assistance’.
He reckons if he attacks Mugabe, his family might have less to do in Africa.
No, seriously.
No doubt it’s why he says he opposed Saddam’s removal, too.
The old man’s unhinged.When Chavez starts murdering Venezuelans in their droves, Antony will start describing as a US backed tyrant. Hear that line all the time regarding Saddam. But I ask, if it was the US propping up Saddam before the first Gulf War, why was Saddam’s military equipped with Russian and French weapons? Wasn’t that nuclear weapons factory the Israelis knocked out a German project?
Also:
Heh. Barely anybody buys Antony’s product, even when he isn’t selling it. Despite massive media promotion, only 248 visitors drop by Antony’s site every day
Make that 247. I went there last night out of curiosity. In the words of Chief Wiggan, “move on, nothing to see here”.
#5
Careful Wronwright, I think Karl is grooming Andrea to be his successor as Chief. The last time I saw him he muttered something about needing someone more ruthless than he to succeed him.#31
The Osirak reactor the Israelis bombed in 1981 was a French project. Chirac and Saddam became good buddies while arranging that little job. Saddam must have been generous with the graft.Posted by Michael Lonie on 2007 01 20 at 08:02 PM • permalinkChavez’ world view places himself at the pinnacle - which he has just done at home by achieving rule by decree.
Pay attention Anthony: he is being called a dictator because he is a dictator. Quite simple for most of us, even the BBC!Loewenstein was silenced once again, in this Saturday’s “Spectrum” section of the SMH. He was talking about blogs, yet amusingly his own blog’s URL wasn’t mentioned at all.
Summary of the article (not available online):
blah blah blah, when I wrote my book about Israel, blah blah blah, buy my book, blah blah blah, Israelis eat babies, blah blah please buy my book.It’s amazing how a totally unrelated article about blogging, by “Freelance Journalist” automatically descends to the one and only topic he is capable of writing about - yet knows little about.
I’ve also noticed how Michelle Malkin, Mark Steyn, Greg Sheridan, hell even Robert Fisk, don’t need to pepper any of their articles with plugs for their own book, let alone all of them.
Favourite line however was this one:
“Tim Blair, one of Australia’s much-read bloggers (and self-described journalist), is equally incapable of explaining any issue without a requisite put-down, smart-arse comment or personal smear”.
That “self-described journalist” is the former news-editor of The Bulletin and now the opinion editor of the Daily Telegraph. Admittedly Tim can’t compete with Loewenstein’s achievements, but he tries…
Loewenstein also referred to Daily Kos as “America’s most popular blog”. Other clangers:
During the writing of my book, My Israel Question, any number of readers of my blog provided invaluable information about the Middle East that I would simply never have discovered on my own.
Well, he may have discovered it had he been to Israel more than once or twice for a few weeks during his “research”. But there you have it: Another plug for his book, and an admission that his research was based on coments from anonymous blog readers (both of them) and presumably not the comments he routinely censors.
What a hack.
Don’t cry for me Venezuela
His name is Chavez
And he’s de-ranged
His fat head full of Chomsky and Marx
And a hatred of Bush
Driving all that he does
You better believe me
All he will be
Is Caracas’ Castro
And the press will ignore all his cnmes
He’ll be a left wing heroHow did it come happen?
How did this strange
Bastard child of Allende and Che
Standing up at the U.N.
Smelling sulpher and fire
And smiting freedom
Running the land through presidential decree
propped up by the high price of oil
He’s brought to you by CitgoDon’t cry for me Venezuela
The truth is liberty’s left you
You’re in for wild days
A mad existence
While your new Fuhrer
Ends all resistancePosted by eeniemeenie on 2007 01 20 at 10:50 PM • permalinkYou never seem to hear about it, but apparently Malcolm Fraser pretty much went broke some years ago. He was up to his eyeballs in Lloyds of London as a “name” and I think asbestos litigation did him (and a lot of others) in.
He was forced to sell his mothers apartment, which sounds like one of those grand old huge apartments that they used to build in the 1930’s - places that are bigger than your average 1990’s house.
Only problem was that she was still living in it. I imagine she had deeded it to him whilst still alive, and he repaid her by making her homeless.
Lovely bloke.
Posted by mr creosote on 2007 01 21 at 12:17 AM • permalinkThank you, Rob and paco, The Other Path and Hernando de Soto were the references I was trying to remember. (I’ll have to try to remember the gentleman’s name in the future by linking his name to the explorer’s and the car’s name.) I also wonder if the book title was also a dig at the Shining Path terrorists?
Posted by andycanuck on 2007 01 21 at 02:58 AM • permalink
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Chavez, another dictatorial fuckstick in the tapestry of life.