The Left's Favorite Dictatorship

“EDITORIALS &
OPINION

A Dictatorship Rises

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 1/22/2007

Chavez's declaration last week that he'll suspend Venezuela's constitution and congress for 18 months and rule by decree will turn Venezuela into a dictatorship. Checks and balances of democratic power sharing will end, and anyone who thinks Chavez will voluntarily return to democracy is a wishful thinker.

Chavez openly calls himself a communist and has ambitious plans to expropriate even more businesses, farms and buildings. He's giving himself carte blanche to meddle with the food supply and will create shortages. He intends to bulk up the military to intimidate his neighbors. That heralds a whole new level of trouble for the region because it's unlikely to stop at Venezuela.

The consolidation parallels how another democratically elected leader, Adolf Hitler, seized power in Germany's weak democracy. It also vindicates the much-derided observations of Donald Rumsfeld, who first compared Chavez to Hitler last year.

Chavez isn't even trying to conceal the similarities. He called his move to rule by decree the "Enabling" Act, the same term Hitler used. Yet, as in the years preceding Hitler's rise to absolute power, no one seems to notice a problem.

Venezuela remains nominally a democracy, and the moves Chavez has made have some technical basis in the Venezuelan constitution — again, like Hitler. The nation also remains a member of the Organization of American States, shielded from censure because of Venezuela's democratic facade.

The U.S. response has been distressingly mealy-mouthed. A State Department spokesman over the weekend was almost apologetic. Before admitting that Chavez's plans "have caused us some concern," he took pains to acknowledge that Chavez "is the elected president" and has a "sovereign right" to rule by decree.

Chavez's response was what could be expected from a predator sensing weakness — a torrent of abuse. "Go to hell, gringos!" he shouted on his Sunday TV show, adding a menacing, sex-tinged and degrading tirade against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

His wild response to mild criticism from the U.S. shows he's too far gone to respond to dialogue from the one democracy that questions his autocratic actions. But at least the State Department is saying the right things. Far worse are Democratic Party freelancers playing at foreign policy.

Connecticut Sen. Christopher Dodd, for example, justifies any autocratic action out of Venezuela with the watery "yes-but" pablum that "Chavez was elected democratically." As if democracy ends on election day.

This is dangerous because Latin America has just had an 11th election that seated many left-wingers who are unsure of the value of democracy. They don't know whether they want to be social-democratic or totalitarian, and are most likely to take the path of least resistance. Chavez's emergence as dominant leader of the region is likely to drive them in the totalitarian direction.
This is already occurring in Bolivia and Ecuador, where left-wingers are working to end their legislative and constitutional bases of power in favor of one-man rule. We wouldn't be surprised to see it happen in Nicaragua as well. With much of Latin America bound by a common language, history and culture, the states often move in political tandem.

Whether the U.S. can tolerate a hostile new axis of leftist states, led by a tyrant with Hitler-like aspirations, is problematic. But tolerating dictatorships under facades of democracy is a road we've been down before.

The U.S. needs a strong plan of action for countering Chavez's dictatorship, because too many of his neighbors stand to be sucked into the vortex with him.




http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=254362522784194”

“Investors.com? LOL!

Hitler? LOL!

And anyway, I thought Castro was our favorite?”

“Castro is so five minutes ago, bear.
He's dying of butt cancer, anyway.”

“Oh crap, here comes the domino theory............again.

We must fear the Third World or they will eat us alive.........again!”

“lets invade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


look how good it worked in iraq!!!!!!!!!”

“"he'll suspend Venezuela's constitution and congress for 18 months and rule by decree"

The silence from the Left is hurting my ears.”

“How's Egypt doing on its "March Towards Democracy", SS?”

“What has that got to do with the thread subject?
Please stay on topic.”

“I've been trained well.”

“Egyptian prisons did a great job of rehabilitating Zawahiri.”

“Still silence........”

“lets invade!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


look how good it worked in iraq!!!!!!!!!”

“Would rekindling the Marko/SS feud here be "on topic"?”

“Sooooo, no Leftie objects to their favorite 'Pres For Life' suspending Venezuela's constitution and congress for 18 months and ruleing by decree.

Figures...... and some of you peeps even still claim not to be in favor of Commies.
LOL”

“i object!


what was the question again?”

“Who is the right's fave dictator?


or was that yesterday?
last edited: 1/22/07 9:17:43 PM”

“Poor Y2 can't stay on subject either.

Notice, none of the lefties have been able to force themselves to make even the slightest objection about Chavez's actions.

Very telling about them.”

“Can you call it a 'feud' when the opposition is 60 to 70% of the adult population?”

“What do you suggest we do Stovey - maybe some economic sanctions that would send the US economy into turmoil as 12% of it's oil is suddenly cut off - maybe an invasion?

What ss - some suggestions or are you just bleating again?

Personally I think it's not really America's business.”

“Why have the righties given up on Iraq?”

“This sounds like a job for Bill Casey's Ghost.

(keep your eyes peeled for a GenX Ollie North)”

“So all the lefties support Chavez.
Figures.”

“we like you stovie cause you're a 'ticdator'.”

“the left will do what it's always done. wait until something absolutely has to be done, when it's too damned uncomfortable not to, when something has been shoved up their a** so far that there is nothing else to be done.”

“Dang Pamela, that's rough!

Venezuela for Venezueleans!!
Why should anyone get their ass all up in the air over what goes on in Venezuela any more than what goes on anywhere else in south or central America?
PETROL??

Are neo-fascists afraid that we here will "catch" communism like the common cold?

And should they try pickin' on the U.S. I stand ready to repel the Venezuelean invaders with rocks and sharp sticks if necessary and fight them to the death!!

BONSAI!!!

Oh, and all this posturing about Igor Chavez is merely an attempt to distract from our own national disaster............DUBYA!
last edited: 1/23/07 6:58:01 AM”

“the left will do what it's always done. wait until something absolutely has to be done, when it's too damned uncomfortable not to, when something has been shoved up their a** so far that there is nothing else to be done


If Pam were to turn around, she'll see Dr. Bush shoving that Iraqi Probe up here colon.

BTW - what're we gonna do about the next Iraqi Autocrat? Blame the "Left" for his existence, I guess. Or maybe rationalize it?

"He's on our side and he's hasn't killed as many as Saddam!"”

“I wonder what would happen if we opened ANWR (the postage size area originally set aside for the work) and drilled in the Gulf? IF we get to a point where we can reduce our dependency on Venzuelan oil and tell them to go jump in the lake.

It will probably be alot like the Soviets in Russia or even the other nations who have gone Communist....LOL...incentive falls off, starvation sets in and we see FEEEEEEEEL good video of children starving. We have to send money becuase natural consequences hit.

Will we face it with a YAAAAAWWWWWn and go "yep STBY" ....NO the UN will give billions to them.

Why should it surprise anyone? I mean look at how we treat our own useless leeches. The people who spend 18 years making classmates and teachers put up with their crap then "graduate" (LOL) hit the streets and end up begging us for "free money".”

“TomT refers to Americans as neo-facists but is OK with the Venezuelan President abolishing his Democratic government.

Classic.”

“TomT refers to Americans as neo-facists but is OK with the Venezuelan President abolishing his Democratic government.

Classic.”
bacpac
8:12:19 AM
1/23/07

YOU said that, not me.
Go ahead, tell me what I believe.....that's all you've got.
Only Americans who behave as neo-fascists and want to intefere in the affairs of other nations deserve that tag.

Thank goodness there are many more decent Americans than there are right-wingers who wish to drag this country into the toilet.
last edited: 1/23/07 7:34:04 AM”

“LOL...so FDR was a neo Fascists? Wow never thought that....kinda ironic he was fighting real fascisim not the specter crap you believe in.”

“Thank you mARKo for that well thought out unemotional oh so intellectual 1960 era comment.”

“So - what do all these 'righties' suggest we do then? I mean your boys have already shot their bolt on invading people?

XL - your plan is stupid in the extreme - Venezuelan oil is cheaper to recover than any Alaskan fields - so the market will always prefer it. You're suggesting we ignore the market and pay more for oil just to get at Chavez?

Pamela - thanks for your contribution - you really added some worthwhile stuff there. I hear the heritage foundation is looking for people btw.

Chavez derives much of his power from anti-American and anti-Bush sentiment, the best thing that can be done is to leave him alone and let him #&%!$ it up while not turning the American economy to #&%!$. Believe me, you take 12% of the oil out of the system and we're all #&%!$ed.”

“Don't fall over SS, but I agree with you on this one. The resemblence to the beginnings of past world wars is blatant. We'll be forced to deal with this problem as the very next OIL WAR. Iraq was the first, this is the second, and it will continue until my kids are grown and old.”

“Bush claims to have a huge plan for Energy coming up in the SotU tonight. It'll be interesting to see what it is.

The long-term solution to this problem is to reduce reliance on oil. Chavez is only there because the high oil price allows him to spend spend spend.”

“TomT, We can read what you wrote. Maybe you meant something else, I can't speak to that.”

“Y2 is starting to sound like he just may not be in LOVE with the little tinpot God.

Oh My! Backtracking a bit?”

“Chavez derives much of his power from anti-American and anti-Bush sentiment - y2

Eh, kinda. Oil revenue and aid to the poor are his real pillars, and they're linked together. With oil prices dropping, it'll be interesting to see what happens.

I don't have much of an opinion on what we should do, if anything. Chavez still needs us as much, if not more, than we need him.

Off topic: laughing @ MarkO's infantile outburst. He views the world through the same black-and-white lens of his avowed enemies (right wing "fascists", religious nutjobs, etc). What an extremist nutcase.”

“XL - your plan is stupid in the extreme - Venezuelan oil is cheaper to recover than any Alaskan fields - so the market will always prefer it. You're suggesting we ignore the market and pay more for oil just to get at Chavez?
Y2

But destroying our national economy to meet imaginary and crippling guidelines thought up by our enemies is...OKAY? LOL....

Prediction time....I will bet within 10 years the economy in Venezuela Tanks, rebel groups start hitting the oil wells...LOL and guess what the best Firefighters are AMERICAN and Canadian.....so we can sit back and giggle....”

“Mutt, are you a religious nutjob now?

Did you fall out of a tree on your head?

XL, your "predictions" are a giggle.”

“You're offically an extremist nutjob, Mark. Didn't you get the memo? All you seem capable of is lunatic rants and bizarre conspiracy theories. Before the Bush years you weren't this much of a wingnut. I guess he just drove you out to the loonie end of the spectrum, eh?”

“Mutt he is still p.o.ed about Florida in 2000. LOL Kinda like the old guy who blew the final pass of the final game in his High School days. He will sit around and talk about IF for the rest of his days.”

“LOL - hit the nail on the head! "Bitter" seems to capture quite a bit of Mark's personna.”

“"Don't fall over SS, but I agree with you on this one."

techntrek
8:00:50 AM
1/23/07

really? you agree with what? i'm still re-reading the thread to see where he states any kind of opinion. all he did was to cut-n-paste an article, then continually bait the lefties for not posting a reply.

i think thats called trolling”

“Mutt, when democracy is "extremist nutjob", you might be a redneck, uh, fascist.”

“All you seem capable of is lunatic rants and bizarre conspiracy theories.

you gonna take that XL? kick his ass!!”

““Mutt, when democracy is "extremist nutjob", you might be a redneck, uh, fascist.”
mARKo
9:03:04 AM

That's the dumbest thing mArKos said all morning. Chavez is killing 'democracy'.”

“"Chavez is killing 'democracy'.”
StoveStomper
10:19:04 AM
1/23/07

So says you.

We shall see what we shall see.

I'm more concerned with the anti-democratic forces in my own country and obviously you are not, SS.”

“mArko has been smokin' way to much. He's lost all his few brain cells. LOL”

“Hoohoohahahahahahahaha!!!!!”

““mArko has been smokin' way to much. He's lost all his few brain cells. LOL”StoveStomper
9:24:01 AM
1/23/07

“What has that got to do with the thread subject?
Please stay on topic.”
StoveStomper
8:24:54 PM
1/22/07”