[tomder55]

Will the Democrats insist that we end our associations with Venezuela now that the Washington Compost has called out Hugo Chavez ?

'Mr. Chavez's Coup
A constitutional 'reform' could complete Venezuela's transformation into a dictatorship.'http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/14/AR2007111402084.html

TENS OF thousands of Venezuelan students marched to the Supreme Court in Caracas last week to protest the new "socialist" constitutional reform that President Hugo Chavez is preparing to impose on the country. On their return, students from the Central University of Venezuela were fired on by gunmen who roared onto the campus on motorcycles. Nine were hurt; university officials later identified the shooters as members of government-sponsored paramilitary groups. That's just one example of the ugly climate of intimidation Mr. Chavez is creating in advance of a Dec. 2 referendum that he expects will formally confirm him as de facto president for life and give him powers rivaling those of his mentor, Fidel Castro.

Mr. Chavez's apologists like to dismiss the Venezuelan forces opposing his deconstruction of democracy -- which include the Catholic Church, the private business community and labor unions as well as students -- as a corrupt elite. So it's worth noting what some of Mr. Chavez's long-standing allies are saying about his constitutional changes. The political party Podemos, whose members ran for parliament on a pro-Chavez platform, call it "a constitutional fraud." Mr. Chavez's recently retired defense minister, Gen. Ra¿l Isa¿as Baduel, said it was an "undemocratic imposition" and that its approval would amount to "a coup."

Listening to the Democrat debate last night I came away with the impression that they would ramp up pressure on Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf to restore democracy in Pakistan . I heard no such similar calls of condemnation about Hugo Chavez. I wonder why ?

[Dark_crow]

Will the Democrats insist that we end our associations with Venezuela now that the Washington Compost has called out Hugo Chavez ?

'Mr. Chavez's Coup
A constitutional 'reform' could complete Venezuela's transformation into a dictatorship.'http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/14/AR2007111402084.html





Listening to the Democrat debate last night I came away with the impression that they would ramp up pressure on Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf to restore democracy in Pakistan . I heard no such simular calls of condemnation about Hugo Chavez. I wonder why ?

Two things about Pakistan: One: Pervez Musharraf leads the military, the military has control of their nuclear power and we don't know the location. Two: There are 3 possibilities. One, Pervez Musharraf will be overthrown and the Islamists will exploit the ensuing chaos to take over. Pervez Musharraf will successfully maintain his dictatorship, and continue his policy of occasionally taking action against al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Or, Musharraf will willingly or unwillingly hand over control to a freely elected government, of which the most likely leader would be Benazir Bhutto. She would likely hold free Democratic elections allowing Pakistanis to vote and thereby the possibility (indeed, the likelihood) that many of them will vote for Islamists or their sympathizers.

Hugo Chavez is defiantly a threat, but nowhere as immediate as the situation in Pakistan.

[tomder55]

The other big difference is 1)that the Democrats suck up to Chavez and treat him like a rock star . 2)Musharraf temporarily announced a state of emergency ;but it appears that the moves Chavez is making is permanent . Who knows what future threat he will pose. Venezuela could be an enemy in our hemisphere with the resources to create a lot of mischief. But still ;my point was that the Democrats have been on their high horse about the situation in Pakistan and the fact that we are allied with a tyrant. Meanwhile not a word is spoken when the people of Venezuela are rapidly losing their freedoms .

[ETWolverine]

I think that the biggest difference between Musharaf and Chavez is that Chavez openly speaks against Bush. That makes him a darling of the Dems, regardless of anything else he does. Musharaf, for all his recent dictatorial actions, has shown a willingness to work with Bush (including recent statements in support of the GWOT and in support of US forces in Afghanistan) making him an enemy of the Dems.

It's simple. You can be a murderous dictator who wishes to destroy democracy and freedom, but if you stand against Bush you will be supported and proppoed up by the Dems, like Chavez and Putin and Ahmadinejad are. And you can be the most pro-Democracy, pro-freedom leader in the world, but if you support Bush, the Dems will vilify you, like they did with Blair and Howard and are now trying to do with Sarkozy.

Elliot

[speechlesstx]

Elliot is right, bash Bush and you're a friend - especially when Bush "has time to mess up our relations with other countries" and they perceive "a pattern of increasing hostility and verbal aggression towards" others such as "our neighbor Venezuela."

By the way, kudos to King Juan Carlos of Spain:

Incensed by Chávez's ceaseless insults and interruptions during an Ibero-American summit meeting in Chile, the normally temperate Juan Carlos turned to Latin America's self-styled "Bolivarian" revolutionary and blurted: "Why don't you shut up?"

Diehl was right though, "The king missed his cue; rather than addressing Chávez, he should have asked the assembled heads of state: "Why don't you speak up?"