Carlos Andrés Pérez dies in Miami

Posted on December 25, 2010 by Sabina Becker

The news just came out over the tweeter in the last hour or so. Here’s the first official announcement, courtesy of Panorama:

Former Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations, Diego Arria, posted a few minutes ago on his Twitter account that the former president of Venezuela, Carlos Andrés Pérez, died on Saturday, December 25, aged 88, in Miami.

Carlos Andrés Pérez was president of Venezuela for two terms (1974-1979 and 1989-1993) as head of the Acción Democrática (Democratic Action) party.

He lived with his family in Miami, and had withdrawn from public life after a stroke.

The ex-president was born in Rubio, in the state of Táchira, on October 27, 1922.

He was married in 1948 to his cousin, Blanca Rodríguez. They had six children: Sonia, Thaís, Martha, Carlos Manuel, María de los Angeles, and Carolina.

After his second term in office, Pérez divorced his wife and continued to live with his secretary, Cecilia Matos.

Translation mine.

Obviously, this is the Reader’s Digest condensed version of Pérez. The real one is considerably longer and more sordid. Cecilia Matos, for starters, was Pérez’s mistress and the reason for his divorce. And believe it or not, she is the LEAST sordid chapter of his life. Here’s the MOST sordid one…the Caracazo, a military/police massacre of random, poor Venezuelans, ordered from the top…by the newly second-term president, Carlos Andrés Pérez, in late February and early March of 1989:

Video in Spanish, in two parts; click through for the second.

Pérez was not solely responsible for all the crime and death, but he was at the head of the very corrupt AD government that decided to follow, to the letter, the IMF’s disastrous “shock therapy” package. He was not a president so much as a tame dictator; he reversed his campaign promises almost as soon as he had taken office. In so doing, he lost whatever democratic credibility he still had. The results were catastrophic for Venezuela’s majority poor, whose wages did not keep step with the sudden inflation in the cost of living that a “free market” inevitably brings. The price of gasoline rose, and with it, bus fares more than doubled. Prices shot up as storefronts closed; there was no actual shortage of goods, but the store owners were hoarding them in order to jack up the prices by claiming shortages. Angry crowds refused to buy that–literally. They set the buses on fire and broke into the shuttered shops, taking whatever they could get their hands on. Barricades made of old tires and garbage burned in the streets. Some waved the flag and sang the national anthem, a graphic reminder that this was not mere looting, it was a nation trying to reclaim its dignity in a spontaneous, unorganized outburst.

But Pérez, having set a disaster in motion by going back on his campaign promises, did not revert meekly to democracy. To do so would have meant losing the IMF cash with which he intended to line his own pockets and those of his mistress and cronies. So he chose another tyrannical, top-down “solution”: He sent the army out to fire on the citizens, indiscriminately, in the poor neighborhoods where the protests raged for days on end.

Crank up the sound on that. The Bersuit song is an angry and very fitting soundtrack. “Here comes the explosion/Here comes the explosion/Of my guitar/And of your government/As well.”

The only thing that saddens me about this death is that this murderer, this dictator, never did any prison time in his life for the thousands of violent deaths on his watch. He was impeached in 1993 for misuse of public funds, a weak charge considering the death toll of his reign–one approaching that of Augusto Pinochet, according to unofficial figures. The Caracazo is widely believed to have killed as many people in one week as died at the hands of fascist thugs during Pinochet’s entire reign.

Carlos Andrés Pérez was actually something worse than Pinochet–he was utterly dishonest about his antidemocratic stance, whereas at least the Chilean dictator made no bones about his own. And rather than do jail time, Pérez fucked off to Miami to enjoy the good life with his mistress…and call for a true democrat, Chávez, to die “like a dog” at regular intervals. Classy, huh?

Here’s the fun part, though: Pérez was waiting for Venezuela to call him home to be president again. That call never came. The only call came from Hades, where one might devoutly hope this sickening old bastard finds justice at last.

Ashes to ashes; dust to dust; shit to the shitpile. Goodbye, Carlos Andrés Pérez…pathological liar, thief and murderer. You won’t be missed.

Share this story:
Posted in Fascism Without Swastikas, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Obits and 'bobs | Comments Off on Carlos Andrés Pérez dies in Miami

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Feliz Chavidad!

Posted on December 24, 2010 by Sabina Becker

For many Venezuelans, it’s been a rough December. Flooding forced many poor folks to abandon their homes, as entire hillsides came crashing down in torrents of mud. They are now living in government shelters as the rebuilding effort gets underway. Others had to spend the holiday in prison or hospital. For them, this Christmas didn’t look so good. That is, until a big, jolly man in red showed up. No, it wasn’t Santa Claus. It was their president:

chavecito-refugees.jpg

Chavecito welcomes refugees to the government palace: “Welcome, you have come to the House of the People.” It’s not merely “mi casa es su casa”, it really is their house. Some of them are actually staying there due to the flooding. When’s the last time you saw a president provide aid so directly?

Meanwhile, some prisoners received pardons:

chavecito-pardons.jpg

Can you believe that ‘Cito, he actually said “prisons have to be converted into centres of social formation”? Evil commie! Total totalitarian!

And of course, it wouldn’t be Christmas without a Christ Child. But this little “Jesusito” wasn’t born in a manger behind a crowded inn, he was born in one of three new maternity hospitals:

chavecito-xmas-baby.jpg

…and of course, the big guy couldn’t resist the impulse to cuddle the Santa-suited little one. Much to the new mom’s delight.

Feliz Chavidad!

Share this story:
Posted in Festive Left Friday Blogging, Huguito Chavecito | 1 Comment

A day for the WTF files

Posted on December 22, 2010 by Sabina Becker

It’s been one, quite literally, for me. Starting with this head-spinning report from Russia Today:

Not only do Israel and Iran actually agree on something–and that something is a Russia-sponsored UN resolution against the glorification of Nazism–but the “freedom-loving” United States of Amnesia opposes that same thing! Happily, the RT journalists bring up the matter of Project Paperclip, in which old Nazis became brand-new CIA torture trainers, espionage “experts”, and other nefarious specialities that the US of A was all too happy to exploit in its quest for Total World Domination™, starting in the Cold War era. This may seem shocking to some; to me it’s practically a no-brainer that the dang Russkies are more freedom-loving, at the bottom of it, than the Yanks are right now. They know from sad Stalin-era experience what the lack of freedom felt like; the US has forgotten, mainly because they had (and still have) more junk on their store shelves to choose from, and mistook (and still mistake) that for freedom. I’m happy to see that a freer press exists in Russia now, and that its reporters don’t shy away from shining a hard light on the old Cold War enemy and its ongoing devotion to the Bad Old Days. This is the kind of reporting we should be seeing all the time, everywhere.

Now: speaking of old Cold Warriors, how about that General Videla? Finally he got a taste of justice. He’s going to civilian prison for the rest of his life, which probably won’t be long now, seeing as he’s 85 and all. Maybe they should release him in the general prison population, while they’re at it. There are probably guys in there who lost someone they knew to Videla’s death squads during the ’70s and ’80s. I’m sure they’d be only too happy to keep him company. Especially since he expressed psychopathic sentiments like the following:

In court on Tuesday, Videla appeared to lack any regret over his past actions, calling what many call the Dirty War a “just war”.

“I did not come here to defend myself today nor speak in my defence, in my eyes, defending myself doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“With this reality, which I cannot change, I will accept, however unwillingly, the unjust sentence that you are able to pass on me as a contribution on my part to the ends of national harmony and I will offer it as an additional service that I owe to God, Our Lord and the nation.”

He didn’t come to defend himself because he couldn’t. What he did was indefensible.

The other big WTF is what he said about the Kirchners. They’re “Gramscian Marxists”? Not even close. Ask a real Argentine socialist about that, and prepare to have your head blown off by a gale of laughter.

And how’s this for a WTF file, literally? Wikileaks now has a CIA task force dedicated to it. It’s called WTF for short. And if that acronym doesn’t make you chuckle, maybe this will:

What’s interesting is that the WTF is suppose to assess what damage has been done as a result of the Wikileaks disclosures, yet the Department of Defense has already said, “WikiLeaks did not disclose any sensitive intelligence sources or methods, the Department of Defense concluded.”

Emphasis added. Linkage as in original.

The only real damage Wikileaks has done, to date, is highlight the emperor’s already obvious nudity. Most of us who’ve been watching the State Dept.’s shenanigans around the globe are yawning over this; it’s no news to us.

It’s also no surprise that US embassies are full of liars dressed up as diplomats. It’s only surprising (and sad) that none of these lying, spying embarrassments have been sent packing by the governments they’ve been sent to subvert…yet. Except, of course, in Latin America, where Evo kicked Goldilocks out of Bolivia, and Chavecito’s not letting the obviously meddlesome Larry Palmer into Venezuela. But then, those diplomatic conflicts were already in progress before Cablegate. And the expulsions would have happened regardless.

Of course, the leaked cables I’ve seen so far present both of these smart leaders as crazy-ass bad guys for wanting putschist “diplomats” out (and honest ones in their stead). WTF were we expecting? CIA spooks have long had diplomatic cover in Latin America. Philip Agee told us as much nearly 40 years ago. The question is, will anything really change in the aftermath of Cablegate?

And alas, that question is wholly rhetorical.

Share this story:
Posted in All About Evo, Fascism Without Swastikas, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Teh Russkies, The WTF? Files | 1 Comment

Don Meredith needs a remedial geography lesson

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Sabina Becker

Not to mention remedial history. Canada NEVER went to war in Iraq, much less under “the previous Liberal government”, as he asserts here, repeatedly, less than a minute in:

And yes, Mr. Meredith is a Conservative. Obviously a very partisan one, to make such hilarious factual errors. But perhaps that’s all understandable. I don’t notice his not-so-new-anymore Conservative government making any serious noises about peace…even in Afghanistan. Which he does finally get around to correctly mentioning, after repeated heckling and booing, at about the 1:06 minute mark.

PS: Mr. Meredith is now a senator. This was an election debate from a couple of years back in which he lost to Bob Rae, a Liberal. Mr. Rae has expressed his surprise at this in a tweet:

rae-meredith-tweet.jpg

Since he couldn’t get himself elected to the House over one of those oh-so-blameworthy Libs, Mr. Meredith has now been appointed to the Senate by Harpo. Who, I reiterate, campaigned on a platform opposing this sort of thing. Read what Scott has to say about this.

Meanwhile, our friends to the south are amused/can commiserate:

holland-meredith-tweet.jpg

Isn’t it nice to know you’re not the only ones who have ignorant wingnuts in the house…er, senate?

PPS: Some remedial queer studies would also be in order, it seems. Or is that not “faith-based” enough for Harpo’s latest Senate pack?

Share this story:
Posted in Canadian Counterpunch | 5 Comments

Do we need Wikileaks for this?

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Sabina Becker

tommy-douglas-greatest.jpg

Gawd, I hope not.

The federal government has relented in its refusal to release decades-old intelligence on Canadian political icon Tommy Douglas.

It’s now promising to review the file and release additional material by March 31.

The promise follows a closed-door hearing during which a Federal Court judge expressed concern about the continued secrecy surrounding the file compiled by the RCMP on a figure of such historical significance.

Before the promise to provide additional information, the Conservative government had maintained that the release of the Douglas documents could hurt the present-day work of Canada’s spy service.

Some of the materials date back more than 70 years.

Douglas, who died in 1986, is widely revered as the father of Canadian medicare. He was premier of Saskatchewan and then the first leader of the federal New Democratic Party.

He was the subject of surveillance for decades, first by the RCMP and later by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS.

Declassify everything, unredacted, or someone might have to do it for you, RCMP.

And don’t give me that guff about how it’s “going to hurt the present-day work” of CSIS. If so little has changed in the spy trade in over 70 years, then the spooks deserve a good kick in the butt for being so far behind the times. I strongly suspect that their methods were illegal and/or unconstitutional, if they still think there is something to hide after all this time. And if they claim this will hurt them here and now, they must still be using those bad methods.

Secrecy and closed doors conceal a multitude of sins, unacceptable in a government that was supposed to have been elected on promises of transparency and accountability. Remember?

All of which is all the more reason to declassify it all, unredacted. No exceptions. If they’ve truly done nothing wrong in the course of their spyings and pryings into the doings of Tommy Douglas, they should have nothing to hide.

And the government shouldn’t balk at holding them accountable, either.

Share this story:
Posted in Canadian Counterpunch | Comments Off on Do we need Wikileaks for this?

Music for a Sunday: Song of the season or sign of the times?

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Sabina Becker

This one’s a little bit of both. And hilarious as hell.

Share this story:
Posted in Music for a Sunday | Comments Off on Music for a Sunday: Song of the season or sign of the times?

Quotable: Richard Rhodes on writing

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Sabina Becker

“If you’re afraid you can’t write, the answer is to write. Every sentence you construct adds weight to the balance pan. If you’re afraid of what other people will think of your efforts, don’t show them until you write your way beyond your fear. If writing a book is impossible, write a chapter. If writing a chapter is impossible, write a page. If writing a page is impossible, write a paragraph. If writing a paragraph is impossible, write a sentence. If writing even a sentence is impossible, write a word and teach yourself everything there is to know about that word and then write another, connected word and see where their connection leads.”

–Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Share this story:
Posted in Quotable Notables | 3 Comments

Wankers of the Week: The geese are getting fat

Posted on December 18, 2010 by Sabina Becker

santa-vs-rich.jpg

“Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat; please put a penny in the old man’s hat.” Unless of course he looks like the one in the ‘toon…in which case, you may want to spare the penny, chop off his head and roast him instead.

Just one week to go until Xmas. Then it’s on to another tryptophan binge for me. Whoopee! But do you know what’s even fatter than the turkeys and geese? The wankitude. It’s so fucking huge, you can’t miss it. And here’s who’s got it oozing out their greasy pores this week:

1. John Fucking Boehner. It’s not a question of whether men can cry, or whether it’s okay for them to do so. It’s a question of whether men can manipulate others with their tears and whether it is okay for them to do so. Clearly the answer is yes with Lesley Fucking Stahl, but I just wanna slap the selfish, self-pitying fucker straight into next week. Just imagine what the media would say if a progressive woman in politics did what he constantly, shamelessly does! His tears have nothing to do with anyone other than himself. And if he can’t get hold of himself, he has no business being in charge of a pop stand, never mind the US house of reps.

2. Christopher Fucking Hitchens. Henry Fucking Kissinger is an easy target to take bitch-slaps at–especially if, like Hitch, you are actually his ideological offspring, desperately seeking to deflect responsibility for your own utter wrongness on a lot of rather important global issues. Neo-cons (and Hitch IS one, make no mistake) owe much to this old warmonger. Hitch, in fact, owes his entire loathsome career as a professional toady-cum-character-assassin to him, since he couldn’t have kept himself in gin without taking lessons (and payola) from the ratfuckers who are the fruit of ol’ Henry’s toxic loins. Shouldn’t he be bowing and scraping to him, instead? PS: Jymn has some additional good points about Hitch’s breathtaking silence on the subject of Richard Fucking Nixon. Why does Nixon get a free pass for antisemitism while his Jewish lackey gets all the bile? Better watch your glass house, there, Hitch, we can see YOUR antisemitism right through it.

3. Lawrence Fucking Cannon. Between this irony-impaired wanker and the Paliness, Haiti seems destined to stagger under the slings and arrows of outrage forever. Not natural disasters, but human asininity, will end up bringing that poor country to its knees. Larry, instead of wasting your breath lecturing Haitians on democracy, why not look in the mirror and admit that our own is not exactly the best example? Oh, I get it…leading by example is not your forte. Carrot-and-stick bullying is. Explains a lot!

4. and 5. Ben Fucking Brown and Richard Fucking Littlejohn. Blaming a wheelchair-bound man with cerebral palsy for the brutality of cops specifically trained and ordered to smash heads during protests? That may draw eyes to your TV respective channel and newspaper, but it’s also a terrific way to get yourselves regarded as nothing but idiotic, opportunistic dickheads. Pick on someone who can fight back, you cowardly fucking bullies.

tiny-tim-tax-cuts.jpg

6. Wesley Fucking Scroggins. Who would say that a book about teenage date rape (with explicit descriptions of the crime) is “soft pornography”? A filthy, slimy pervert who secretly masturbates to just such awfulness, that’s who. I am sure that this one’s bid to have the book banned is just a way of adding to the illicit frisson he already gets out of it. And I shudder to think what his idea of HARD pornography is, if adolescent rape is “soft”.

7. Dean Fucking Del Mastro. To stop him is to stop Harpo. Canadian readers, please sign the petition.

8. Sepp Fucking Blatter. Why did FIFA decide to hold the next World Cup in Doha, Qatar? Can anyone explain? Last time I looked, prohibitions on alcohol and Teh Ghey are NOT examples of a world with “no boundaries”.

9. Les Fucking Kinsolving. Maybe, if you didn’t keep whining “Where’s the birth certificate?”, you wouldn’t be whining “Where’s my White House Christmas party invite?” now, you fucking racist tool.

10. Ann Fucking Coulter. Oh yay, I was wondering when this irrelevant vampire would rise from her dusty coffin again. The Moon must have been in eclipse, because she’s crapped out yet another classic Coultergeist attack on free speech. She even finds a way to work her chronic, corrosive racism into the pile-on against Wikileaks. And, by damn, it’s a labyrinthine screed–can you make sense of it? I can’t. See? Vintage Coultergeist! Way to go, Ann, I didn’t think you had it in you anymore. Guess you found another virgin to drain of blood, so you did get an energy boost after all. Now, where’d I put my sharpened stake…? Oh yeah, here it is: YOU’RE NOT A FUCKING JOURNALIST YOURSELF, ANN! YOU ARE NOTHING BUT AN UNDEAD HACK WHO NEVER HAD AN INFORMED OPINION IN HER GODFORSAKEN LIFE. AND WE KNOW ALL ABOUT YOUR BULK-BOUGHT “BESTSELLERS”. (There, that oughta do it…)

better-watch-out.jpg

11. Rush Fucking Limbaugh. Wonder why this feminist isn’t joining the self-righteous stampede to vilify Julian Assange…or Michael Moore? It’s a no-brainer: If the Pigman is doing it, you as a self-respecting progressive should NOT. This is the same asshat who refers to us as “feminazis” on a regular basis, after all. And his pretending to be a friend of rape victims is the ultimate in male-chauvinist cynicism. For all we know, Rush the Pigman could be a serial rapist himself. He certainly talks like one.

12. John Fucking Ivison. Lord knows I’m no fan of Iggy the Boyar, mainly because there’s not much separation between him and Harpo on a lot of issues–but could you please leave women’s shapely curves out of your diatribes, con-tard boys? Or would that just make it too politically correct…or just plain not interesting to read (as if it were interesting even WITH the sexism)?

13. The Fucking Union Bank of Switzerland. Anal-retentive much?


14. Charles Fucking McVety. A band of mariachi cockroaches is playing the world’s smallest instruments for your pity party, Sir Homophobe. If you want to know what the heavy hand of censorship really feels like, try being gay in a world run by fundie preacher-men.

scrooge-foreclosure.jpg

15. Bill Fucking Sammon. FUX Snoozers told to distort the news? Color me so shocked. Surely this has nothing to do with the rash of stories this week on professional “libertarian” trolls being sent to dumb down the Internets, and how FUX Snooze makes you, well, Teh Stoopid. Surely just a malign coinkydink!

16. Terrence Fucking Lakin. How to be a wanker, in 3 easy steps: Be a Birther, in the US Army; refuse a direct order to deploy overseas. Invite your own court-martial to force the issue of a fucking birth certificate into the public eye. Then, when tried and found guilty of dereliction of duty, whine that you should still be allowed to serve, and that being a Birther is no impediment, even though it’s supposedly the reason you refused a direct order to ship out when the army needs doctors to look after the war casualties. Yes, really–this guy tried all that. Yes, it IS nuts. Isn’t mental stability still a requirement for the job?

17. Julia Fucking Gillard. If Wikileaks didn’t break any laws, then why did the Australian government join the pile-on against Julian Assange? Oh, I see…someone is still the empire’s prison bitch. And her party is now suffering in the polls for it.

18. Conrad Fucking Black. Oh, look who lost his appeal but isn’t giving up! Making a federal case of it, and hoping the conservatard-packed SCOTUS will free him. Must be nice to have all those unearned (read: swindled) millions to be able to do it. But by the time they get around to it, Lord Ha-Ha’s prison term could be just about up. Wouldn’t that be a hoot? Meanwhile, millions of Yanks are still languishing for far lesser offences; they aren’t white OR rich, so they’re stuck. Do you think he could help THEM out? Nah. Too busy pitying his arrogant, asinine self.

19. and 20. Anibal Fucking Cavaco Silva and Trinidad Fucking Jiménez. Yeah, Chavecito is “crazy”…so crazy that he managed to prevent Venezuela getting swept up in the global economic crisis that’s now eating Portugal and Spain (the respective homelands of these two undiplomatic wankers) alive. Don’t you wish your leaders were hot like him?

foreclosure-grinch.jpg

21. The Fucking Ontario Minor Hockey Association. They must think racism is okay. Why else would they penalize a coach who wouldn’t stand for it, and protested peacefully, when one of his players was called a nigger? What a fucking disgrace the OMHA is.

22. Mel Fucking Gibson. Calling Winona Ryder, who is Jewish, an “oven dodger”? Looks like his more recent antisemitic outbursts have a long history. Looks like those who still defend him as “basically good” now have a lot more ‘splainin’ to do. I wonder why Winona took so long to talk about it. Fear? Incomprehension? Reluctance to offend the Hollywood power machine? All distinct possibilities. Anyhow: Good on you, Winona, for speaking out–and fuck you once more, Mad Mel, you crazed evil fascist swinebag.

23. Dick Fucking Cheney. The Big Dick is back, and has bought his way out of prosecution to the tune of a $250 million (US) slap on the wrist. No doubt it’s chickenfeed compared to what Halliburton pocketed in the wake of Gulf War II.

24. Sarah Fucking Palin. Have I mentioned her yet? No? Well, consider this it, then. She’d “never shoot an animal for fur or fashion”, but she WOULD shoot one for show and cruelty. And of course, there’s that bearskin rug behind her. Given that she’s actually a lousy shot, I’m sure she’s not the one who bagged it. The layers of hypocrisy and stupidity on this bimbo are infinite. PS: I doubt very much that she ate that caribou, either. PPS: Ow! Sucks to be you, Sarah!

palin-rudolph.jpg

25. Brent Fucking Bozell. If you’re gonna slag the so-called “liberal” media for supposedly “taking the Christ out of Christmas”, maybe you should give some equal time to FUX Snooze, which does the exact same thing. You know, to be Fair and Balanced™? Oh wait, you’re ON there. Of course you’re not going to bite the hand that feeds your miserable, wretched excuse for a media watchdog centre. And of course you’re going to go on banking on the fact that FUX Snooze viewers are the dumbest heaps of dogshit in the land, so that’s why they won’t question why it’s just as absent from THEIR channel of choice as it is from all the others!

26. All the fucking banksters attacking Wikileaks. Surely not because someone there has access to all their dirty little secrets? Stay classy, banksters.

27. Rob Fucking Ford. Being sued for libel when you really DID libel someone is not a SLAPP suit. But thanks for showing, yet again, that your chutzpah knows no bounds.

corporate-xmas-present.jpg

28. The entire fucking Harpocracy squatting in Ottawa. Bad enough that our spooks are incompetent torture lovers who lick Yankee boots like they’re made of ice cream. Do they really deserve a Taj Mahal sports complex for THAT? Oh, I see what you did there. This is part of that manly-man
ification of our wimpy widdle nation, is it? A waste of tax dollars we shouldn’t be paying to the likes of you, is what it is.

29. Tim Fucking Hudak (and his fucking Ontario SupposiTories). Soft on guns and softer on crime, that’s Tim the Recycled Harrisite.

30. The Fucking Grauniad. Way to go, idiots, you totally fell for the State Dept.’s crapaganda. Not only was Michael Moore’s movie, Sicko, NOT banned in Cuba, it was widely shown in local theatres AND on Cuban TV months before the CIA’s man in Havana squatted down and just made shit up–as is usual for the CIA’s man in just about any foreign “station” you care to name. In fact, the Cuban health system works just as depicted in the documentary, and is the island’s pride–along with its stellar educational system, which enables it to graduate medical doctors not only from Cuba, but all over the Americas. That’s why the Cuban government lost no time disseminating the film as widely as it could; it was a potent reminder to Cubans not to trust what the US government says about them. It was also rightly popular with the Cuban people, who certainly do not consider the hospital seen in the movie to be “mythical”, or even the exception to the rule. As Moore himself points out, the last time the State Dept. was this reliant on utter bullshit, Team America World Police was getting its counterrevolutionary ass kicked all over the Bay of Pigs. Would it hurt the Grauniad to make a phone call or two to Havana? Are they so strapped for cash that they’ve fired all their fact-checkers? They have Lexis/Nexis at their disposal; would it kill them to actually sit down and USE it? Would it hurt them to print a real retraction of their blatant nonsense, either? Because that snotty little appendage they tacked to the bottom of their embarrassingly dumb hit-piece isn’t cutting it.

santa-assange.jpg

And finally, to Kate Fucking McMillan.* It only took her five years to finally discover that I existed, and to send her flying monkeys out to “scratch” me. And what did I get? BORED. Aren’t there supposed to be more clowns inside those silly little cars? Guess the recession is hitting the wingnuts hard, too. They can only afford a broken-down third-hand Harley with a rickety sidecar these days. Poor things.

I was very gentle with the ass-kicking, all things considered, but they haven’t been back to challenge me on a single point of my refutation; that’s how butthurt these ‘winger winos get when confronted with real facts. But then, what do you expect of flying monkeys who operate on behalf of the Wingnut Wench of the West? When Dorothy (uh, that would be me) dumped cold water on their mistress and she melted down to a steaming frizzle on the floor, it didn’t take much to vanquish them!

Poor unloved Kate, I feel sorry for you. Is your popularity down so far that this is the best you could do? Are you jealous that I won the Ruby Slippers this year and you did not? For someone so inordinately proud of her legion of brainwashed minions, you fail so hard. Better work on the quality of your blog, so you won’t have to resort to those tired old ugly bitch tactics.

And speaking of tired old ugly bitch tactics: why are you not here to “debate” me yourself, if you think you know so much better than I do what’s going on in Venezuela? Buk buk buk b’kawww, Katie dear. Since the Mariachi Cockroaches are already playing for the pity-party for your soulmate Chuck, I could only spare one lonely trombonist for you…

Good night, and get fucked!

*No, I’m not linking to her shitty blog or her smack-talk about me. You wanna see it, google it.

Share this story:
Posted in Wankers of the Week | 40 Comments

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Simón Bolívar approves

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Sabina Becker

chavecito-santos-bolivar.jpg

Chavecito and neighbor-president Santos shake hands under the watchful eyes of the Liberator of their two countries (and three more). This is the 180th anniversary of Bolívar’s death, so it’s a snapshot with added significance. Bolívar’s dream was of an independent, united “Gran Colombia” (the region roughly spanning modern Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.) Treachery and infighting between Bolivarian forces ended up dividing the nations, a conflict that still has echoes to this day. Sadly, it was a Colombian general, Santander, who bears the blame for that.

But positive change is happening, and for that, thank Chavecito. Trade and diplomatic relations are moving rather nicely between Venezuela and Colombia today. And yes, it means Chavecito has won; remember, he’s the one who broke the relations off in the first place, in solidarity with Ecuador; it was a diplomatic and economic blockade. Santos has caved; considering what a major trading partner Colombia has in Venezuela, it’s not hard to see why. Chavecito’s friendly gesture of sending the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra to Colombia is the icing on a very sweet cake.

Meanwhile, the presidents of Argentina and Uruguay have called for Venezuela’s full inclusion in the South American common market, Mercosur. And the people of the Bolivarian nations take more pride in their democracy than those allied with the US, too. And with that, we can definitely say Gringolandia’s efforts to drive wedges have failed.

Bolívar vive, la lucha sigue. Bolívar lives, the struggle goes on.

Share this story:
Posted in Don't Cry For Argentina, Ecuadorable As Can Be, El NarcoPresidente, Festive Left Friday Blogging, Huguito Chavecito, Paraguay, Uruguay | Comments Off on Festive Left Friday Blogging: Simón Bolívar approves

Short ‘n’ Stubby: The Wiki, she just keeps on leakin’…

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Sabina Becker

Good evening! I’ve given the stump-tailed cyber-mascot a break from the head of the post, so that I can bring you other things germane to the Wikileaks issue. Case in point: The video above. Watch it, I command you.

And when you’re done that, Ms. Manx, who has been busily operating the telegraph in the background, would like to draw your attention to the following. Ptttttteeeep eeep eeeep…

Ms. Manx thinks it’s a crying shame that Wikileaks is not the newsmaker for the year at Time when it’s just such an obvious no-brainer. (“Mark Zuckerberg?” she says, with a snort of disbelief.) She’s not so fussed on Julian Assange; her real newsmaker is Bradley Manning, who is believed to have supplied all that incriminating material that Assange is now being persecuted for publishing. And Glenn Greenwald has broken a huge story on him. Credible sources say that Manning is being mentally tortured in custody pending trial, without charges as yet. FREE BRADLEY MANNING, cries the Manx.

Fidel Castro’s take is that Wikileaks “has brought the empire to its knees.” Ms. Manx nods sagely and says that sounds about right. Which is why this rape charge smells less like a prosecution than a persecution. (Embarrassing Cablegate revelations that the US is full of shit about the nuclear doings of Venezuela and Iran don’t help them much, either.)

And if you don’t believe the Manx, Naomi Wolf has some good points to make–namely, that this so-called rape charge trivializes all rape cases, and will end up ultimately hurting women. Writes Wolf: “Here is what I mean: men are pretty much never treated the way Assange is being treated in the face of sex crime charges.” Further to what she previously wrote, which was widely criticized–and falsely–as mocking rape, Wolf knows from personal experience that the average accused rapist does NOT have Interpol on his tail, even if he flees the country. For most men who do that, it means the end of all charges against them. Not a massive and showy global manhunt. Wolf’s closing lines are excellent, and have the wholehearted approval of the Manx:

Anyone who works in supporting women who have been raped knows from this grossly disproportionate response that Britain and Sweden, surely under pressure from the US, are cynically using the serious issue of rape as a fig leaf to cover the shameful issue of mafioso-like global collusion in silencing dissent. That is not the State embracing feminism. That is the State pimping feminism.

And on a related note, one of Assange’s Swedish attorneys says the police record may actually clear Assange.

Meanwhile, Amy Goodman notes that character assassination has been going on nonstop since those weak charges were miraculously resurrected, just in time for Cablegate. She notes, in particular, the real feminist angle to all this…which may surprise some of you:

Since the principal, public reason for Assange’s arrest relates to questions about potential sexual crimes in Sweden, Katrin Axelsson, from the group Women Against Rape, wrote in a letter to the British newspaper The Guardian: “Many women in both Sweden and Britain will wonder at the unusual zeal with which Julian Assange is being pursued for rape allegations. …. Women don’t take kindly to our demand for safety being misused, while rape continues to be neglected at best or protected at worst.”

(Ms. Manx just let out a meow that sounded remarkably like “BINGO!”)

And speaking of character assassination: Stay classy, Jezebel. Whatever happened to presumptions of innocence, anyway? Or is it not character assassination when self-proclaimed feminist websites do it? If we’re going to be fighting against double standards that work to the invariable disadvantage of women, shouldn’t we practice what we preach, ladies, and keep our tits out of the rumor mill? You’re all acting as if you already knew Assange to be a date-rapist extraordinaire, based on a skanky dating website profile that may or may not be his. Ms. Manx looks down her nose at you, and remarks that she thought summer was the silly season for news.

Finally, Ms. Manx says (with scratchy tongue planted firmly in furry cheek) that if we’re going to deal in weird rumors regarding Wikileaks, someone should fact-check and see if this Cablegate RickRoll is real. (This weird architectural item has already published a mini-retraction at the bottom of its page. No, Wikileaks is NOT living in a Cold War-era bunker in Sweden. Sorry.)

Share this story:
Posted in Short 'n' Stubby | 4 Comments