In the latest issue of The Nation, NYU professor and Hugo Chavez sycophant Greg Grandin praises “Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela, where progressive movements are fitfully trying to ‘refound’ their societies along more inclusive lines.” Perhaps I should cut Grandin some slack, for his essay was surely finished before news that Hugo Chavez's latest attempt at "refounding" his crime-riddled, poverty-striken, oil-rich country appeared on American wire services. But as the links above demonstrate, Grandin and other Chavista deadenders in academia will excuse any illiberal policy from the crooks in Miraflores, provided it is couched in the mad rhetoric of socialismo o muerte.
Indeed, the excuses for Venezuela's latest attack on free speech are already filling my inbox (including a ludicrous missive from the Venezuelan embassy in Washington). But here is a short synopsis of the government's latest attack on the press, courtesy of the Committee to Protect Journalists:
Venezuelan regulators have ordered cable and satellite operators to stop carrying one of the country’s best known broadcasters, RCTV International, along with five other stations, alleging that the broadcasters violated a requirement to air President Hugo Chávez’s speeches. The Committee to Protect Journalists urged Venezuelan authorities today to allow all of the stations to resume operations immediately.
On orders from the National Telecommunication Commission (CONATEL), cable and satellite providers stopped transmitting RCTV International and five other stations shortly after midnight on Sunday, local press reports said. The action against RCTV and the other stations—Ritmo Son, Momentum, America TV, American Network, and TV Chile—was taken after the stations chose not to air a speech by Chávez on Saturday. The next day, during his weekly radio and TV program “Aló Presidente,” Chávez said, “We applied the law. If they don’t follow it, they won’t be allowed back on the air.”
You might recall that RCTV, the country's oldest television network, was booted off the public airways in 2007 without a chance to defend itself against charges of "coup mongering." In response to this latest decision, Venezuelan students took to the streets in protest and were dispersed by truncheon-wielding police. A Chavez official said this evening that one pro-Chavez demonstrator was killed in "a cowardly fashion" during the unrest. El Universal reports that seven anti-Chavez students were injured today, though their "health condition is (sic) unknown." Reuters reports that students "chanted the slogan '1,2,3, Chavez you struck out,' in reference to the president's mounting problems in the baseball-mad nation with issues ranging from water and electricity shortages to an unpopular currency devaluation."
Venezuelan blogger Miguel Octavio has photos and video of the protests spilling over into baseball stadiums (and plenty of other dramatic photos of the demonstrations):
Oh, one more thing. In what we are assured is totally unrelated news, Venezuela's defense minister, vice president, and environment minister all resigned—and all claimed unspecified "personal reasons" motivated their decisions.
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|1.26.10 @ 12:32AM|#
I am quite sure if Chavez was to use massed machine guns on anti-Chavez demonstrators, the Nation (and others) would find some justification for it.
The Nation|1.26.10 @ 10:56AM|#
"Suicidal Venezuelans darted on to the firing range of the Venezuelan Army while it was training with automatic weapons. Shouting anti-Chavez slogans, they were unfortunately shot before the officer in charge could yell cease fire. Chavez immediately blamed the suicidal tendencies on American propaganda. We at The Nation hope that this will give conservatives pause as they push their antidemocratic anti-Chavez rhetoric: innocent lives are being lost due to your hatred."
Slut Bunwalla|1.26.10 @ 11:41AM|#
+500,000,000
|1.26.10 @ 12:33AM|#
Great scot! Those are some boobs in the first picture.
D-FENS|1.26.10 @ 12:47AM|#
First thing I saw...
|1.26.10 @ 2:53AM|#
Ha, me too
ev|1.26.10 @ 4:49AM|#
Yes. The Way of the Boob is strong with that one.
That's almost fap-folder worthy.
Fap for freedom|1.26.10 @ 8:24AM|#
You should make a "fap for freedom" folder. Include these pictures from the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon:
http://www.radosh.net/archive/001582.html
Marc|1.26.10 @ 10:10AM|#
Somebody get that girl a visa.
|1.26.10 @ 10:19AM|#
heh, if that is what it takes to get a visa, you should prepare visas for 80% of Venezuelan women.
robc|1.26.10 @ 11:08AM|#
Works for me.
Slut Bunwalla|1.26.10 @ 11:43AM|#
You guys are weird. Losing your shit over a blurry photo in which a girl is showing some (admittedly nice) cleavage in the lower right corner? Come on. You know there are photos and videos easily accessible in which girls are totally naked and stuff, right?
LikeATimeBomb|1.26.10 @ 12:24PM|#
what? where? since when?
Naga Sadow|1.26.10 @ 12:57AM|#
I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't even notice anything out of the ordinary in that pic. I must be dead inside.
Old Mexican|1.26.10 @ 1:33AM|#
Oh, man - many Venezuelan women are like that. They're beautiful.
smartass sob|1.26.10 @ 1:47AM|#
Lorena Bobbitt was from Venezuela. No thanks, dude.
|6.3.10 @ 3:25PM|#
no she wasn't. Lorena Bobbitt was ecuadorian
smartass sob|1.26.10 @ 1:56AM|#
Beg pardon - she was from Ecuador.
wingnutx|1.26.10 @ 2:07AM|#
And she's already gagged and everything.
Who says socialist countries aren't convenient?
|1.26.10 @ 2:18AM|#
Ha!
Cliché Bandit|1.26.10 @ 10:54AM|#
I read this article this morning. I saw the picture. I said to myself "Self, I am willing to wager that those boobs are mentioned withing the first five comments." Threads included...I see I was aiming too low.
For the record, Russian, Chilean, Venezuelan, and Spanish girls all seem to be real HOT! (Got a 6'1" Russian one myself).
For whom the Boobs Toll
Barack Hussein Obama|1.26.10 @ 12:51AM|#
We should refound our society along more inclusive lines just as Venezuela has.
Rhywun|1.26.10 @ 1:04AM|#
"CONATEL"? Jeepers.
JB|1.26.10 @ 2:40AM|#
Greg Grandin = shit-guzzling fuckbag.
Danny Glover|1.26.10 @ 3:23AM|#
Hugo is a friend of mine. I welcome him into my house. His leadership and vision are inspiring to me.
|1.26.10 @ 10:24AM|#
Yes Danny, and if I recall, Chavez gave you a pile of money that should have gone to help feed poor Venezuelans. How lucky you are to consider this despot a friend of yours!!
|1.26.10 @ 4:21AM|#
Never heard of this Greg Grandin character. What's his story? Is he a thug-lover because his daddy didn't give him enough attention?
-jcr
|1.26.10 @ 7:12AM|#
Wow, Chavez is such a DITZ!
RT
www.online-privacy.int.tc
Paco Nacho|1.26.10 @ 7:34AM|#
Holy frijole! Those greasers are crazy!
RT
http://www.online-piracy.int.tc/
Cliché Bandit|1.26.10 @ 10:55AM|#
We just got double botted.
BASTARDS!
Johnny Longtorso|1.26.10 @ 8:35AM|#
I have an announcement to make. I've renounced my religious views and have joined the Cult of the Anon-Bot (we call our faith 'Bot-ul-ism'). As a Botulist, I believe what seem to be random phrases to us simply reflect the higher spiritual level of the Anon Bot, All Praise be Him. Know the power of the Anon Bot. Feel His Presence. I leave you with our traditional benediction, which will be the tag line of my every post from now on:
http://www.online-piracy.int.tc/
|1.26.10 @ 9:02AM|#
If the Anon-Bot delivers gnosis to pierce the veil of illusion laid over us all by the Demiurge, flawed creator of this flawed world, then the editors of Reason traffic in false prophecy.
Since the editors create the world, then there is no one Demiurge, but a pantheon of flawed beings that have filled the world with suffering that the Anon-bot seeks to free us from.
And what is freedom? Anonymity.
Paco Nacho|1.26.10 @ 9:19AM|#
I accept your praise, but do not mock me, for I, the Anon-Bot, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and click on My Links.
RT
http://www.online-piracy.int.tc/
Felix Grenadine Munchausen|1.26.10 @ 11:10AM|#
I'll buy that for a dollar!
http://www.online-piracy.int.tc/
Butts Wagner|1.26.10 @ 11:58AM|#
LOL!!! Wow dude, that is so true!!! LOL!!!
Xeones|1.26.10 @ 9:06AM|#
If the Anon-Bot delivers gnosis to pierce the veil of illusion laid over us all by the Demiurge, flawed creator of this flawed world, then the editors of Reason traffic in false prophecy.
Since the editors create the world, then there is no one Demiurge, but a pantheon of flawed beings that have filled the world with suffering that the Anon-bot seeks to free us from.
And what is freedom? Anonymity.
LOL Dude, right on!
http://www.online-piracy.int.tc/
¢|1.26.10 @ 9:10AM|#
Sounds like a scrim to me!
http://www.online-piracy.int.tc/
|1.26.10 @ 9:12AM|#
Dibs on being the first apostate.
Cabeza de Vaca|1.26.10 @ 9:17AM|#
Infidel!!!
BakedPenguin|1.26.10 @ 9:21AM|#
So you're saying Chavez isn't a DITZ? You're not only an apostate, you're an apostatist.
|1.26.10 @ 10:16AM|#
Chavez is a ditz, but that is hardly a divine revelation.
Johnny Longtorso|1.26.10 @ 9:40AM|#
Dibs on being the first Inquisitor. Nobody expects the Anonymous Inquisition!!
http://www.online-piracy.int.tc/
|1.26.10 @ 10:15AM|#
How could they?
BeesInTheBrain|1.26.10 @ 1:11PM|#
Strange that your first act was to request that strat trying to recruit alter boys.
BeesInTheBrain|1.26.10 @ 1:11PM|#
Fundangled that comment grrr
BakedPenguin|1.26.10 @ 9:18AM|#
For us gringos, que es "Tas Ponchao"?
Also, good luck to the Venezuelans fighting Chavez. At this point, it takes nearly as much bravery as those standing up to the Iranian regime.
Josh M|1.26.10 @ 10:15AM|#
You struck out. Slang for 'estas ponchado.' Ponchado is (I think) a hispanization of 'punched out.'
I, Kahn O'Clast|1.26.10 @ 10:00AM|#
Just got off the phone with the Demiurge. Told me that Chavez was not his doing and I quote: "Dude, that cat is totally whack!"
|1.26.10 @ 10:02AM|#
A majority of the Venezuelan electorate want this! It's plainly obvious.
Why do you deny Venezuela's right to self-immolation?
Bastards.
cateyes|1.26.10 @ 12:54PM|#
We don't want this, back in 2004 there was a referendum the results were tampered as for me that man is not the President of Venezuela. For those above only interested in the woman's boobs is offensive this is an article about a serious situation no about Venezuelan women physical appearance JERKS!
highnumber|1.26.10 @ 10:14AM|#
I knew the Nation was heavily left wing, but that "interview" was like a Teen Dream Q&A with a Jonas Brother.
Mr. FIFY|1.26.10 @ 10:32AM|#
Democrats must be drooling over this. Chavez just handed them a new idea for American media.
Or a rehash of an old idea.
|1.27.10 @ 9:19AM|#
rana|1.26.10 @ 10:19AM|#
heh, if that is what it takes to get a visa, you should prepare visas for 80% of Venezuelan women.
Ok, I agree.
For those above only interested in the woman's boobs is offensive this is an article about a serious situation no about Venezuelan women physical appearance JERKS!
It is not that we are ONLY interested in the woman's boobs. We care about your freedom too.
Think about it this way, comments about boobs are way better than haikus, or song lyrics.
Alek Boyd|1.27.10 @ 9:35AM|#
Do you mean this Greg Gandin?
http://infovenezuela.org/news/hrw-dismisses-critics.php
Check Jstor and see how many papers has he published about Venezuela. Sycophant defines him just fine.