You are aware that this took place well before the arrival of Chávez, back in 1976?
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Xeni has also posted plenty about the NSA spying program, see here and here for example. I would imagine Xeni is not posting this story as a self-appointed representative of the US trying to make her country look better by comparison, but just as an individual who cares about governments violating freedoms of their citizens wherever they occur, so your comment about a “US double standard” is unwarranted.
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Well there’s no doubt there was a corporate media/moneyed colonialist elite/CIA backed attempt to overthrow the democratically elected and popular Chavez. It would make sense that this “journalist” was part of that attempted coup, but I don’t have a source, that’s why I said probably. If you care that much about that detail, and not the overall context, then do your own research.
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We, as in “Venezuelans”. I was born in Venezuela, I went to school in Venezuela, and all my family still lives in Venezuela.
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You would have to analyze the phrase with the “the only variable is about what” part. And I’m not talking exclusively about writers, I do think this is one of the phrases that applies to everyone. Adults lie (that’s what separate us from kids). For all the tender and funny moments of “Liar Liar” (1997) has as a movie, one of the things that come very clear of that tale (almost like a fable) is that in an adult world, it would be almost impossible to navigate without ever lying. A person might be a straight arrow in one, or several aspects of his/her life. But it may be forced to use a lie every now and then in others (i. e. not telling the truth when a person ask us for our opinion, if we are in fear of hurting that person’s feelings)
I can certainly agree with you there.
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A socialist country that still uses the dollar as currency. Yeah, right.
Ecuador is another mixed market economy, like most of the countries in the world. Again, stick to the facts, not propaganda.
Taking some loans in order to stabilize its oil industry doesn’t mean
Venezuela is back under US control.
Yeah, sure, everybody know that taking loans from fucking Chevron Texaco and issuing tons of debt is perfectly normal during an oil boom.
All you need to know to understand how these nations have broken the
grip of the western financial cartel is to read the US mainstream
media
Of course! We don’t need to understand the facts! We don’t need to support our claims, we only need to watch American media and think the opposite! Hell, yes! Maybe I am sarcasm impaired today and you are joking, right? Such an absurd statement has to be a joke.
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Blah blah blah… Citation please.
You’re the one making the statement. You’re the one that has to prove whether it’s true or not. Bocaranda has a solid rep, as far as I can tell in my years reading it, and hearing it.
Onus probandi, I think they call it. Or the “implicit burden of proof on the person asserting a claim”
Oh, poor chavistas, they won’t comment! The revolution won’t be tweeted, will it?
Please, inform yourself before making such statements.
The Venezuelan govt has a media machine, including online volunteers and paid personnel. They regularly use the hashtag #tropa https://twitter.com/search?q=tropa&src=typd and organize carefully to appear as TT, directed by TV anchors from state TV. This machine is as big as it is stupid, we have listened stupidity that rivals anything said by Michelle Bachman or Rush Limbaugh, like that time when a TV anchor said (paid with our money, of course) that the plan to assassinate Chávez was hidden in a crossword in one of the main newspapers in the country! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNiH0hSFnCs
All this chatter about war and the opposition and the US fighting against the Venezuelan govt (just like you and the Taliban fight against the American govt, right?) is a mere excuse to justify what’s going on in Venezuela and dismiss all criticism.
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And your implication is, what? That only persons in the opposition have access to Web 2.0 resources, like blogs, micro-blogs and so on? That doesn’t seem to be the case:
http://venezuela-us.org/2013/02/06/venezuela’s-internet-use-up-cell-phone-use-over-100/
Of course, Chávez did everything.
When we went to public universities for free, my friend, it was because Chávez traveled in time to grant us that right.
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You are making big claims, slandering people without any evidence.
What we know is that Chávez had cáncer, Chávez got sick and Chávez was terminally ill during his campaign, not cancer free as he claimed. All things that Bocaranda said in the public record.
I’ll trust more Nelson Bocaranda that any random Internet person.
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I’m willing to bet you OSGuido, that none of these chavista supporters in this forum has ever visited Venezuela…
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My main point was that Boing Boing WITH THIS ARTICLE is piling on the US corporate MSM’s desperate attempts to smear Snowden.
But much like this article, better to focus on details than look at the big picture, right?
Comparing Bush’s very temporary high approval rating after 9/11 to Chavez and Obama is very clever, and highly disingenuous. Exactly the kind of “journalism” I’m talking about, taking a sensational fact to distract from the big picture context. The point is for most Americans, based on the MSM reporting, and hyped incidents like this alleged one, Chavez was as bad as Saddam Hussein.
I’m making no judgment on Boing Boing overall, but here in the US we have the Mainstream media, and then we have “alternatives” that seem better (prime examples would be the Daily Show, Bill Maher), that in the end just preserve the sham of our fake 2-party system, where they all really work for the same Financial Sector and War Profiteering Corporate Masters. The relationship between Bush III (Obama) and the US “liberal” media has become Dick Cheney and Karl Rove’s wet dream
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That documentary has been debunked, by the Venezuelan anarchists, a movement active well before the Chávez era and very active in HR issues.
Sorry, Spanish only. Anarchists have no oil and media machine to pay for pro translations. Actually, I should translate it.
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Congratulations to Boing Boing and the WP. After reading the comments on this article, you have BRILLIANTLY distracted from the issues Snowden gave up his nice comfortable life to expose. Let’s all bash Venezuela with rumors and elites vs. Chavistas bickering over a disputable overblown incident (is this reporter in jail or seeking sanctuary?). Snowden - smeared. America taking another step toward Wall Street elite police state - ignored! USA! USA! Way to go!
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It’s a fair comparison. Just ask yourself: Are those approval ratings proof of an absolute and total support of George W. policies? Were everybody back then hippy dippy about those policies in the U.S.? I guess not…
Same story can be told about Chavez and his ratings…
Wait, are you telling that only the “elites” are against Chavez… Wow, I never thought about it before…
Does that means that the 7,363,980 (49,12%) that voted against the chavista option, are all elite? Wow… For a country of about 30 million persons, we have a lot of those elite people!!!
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Well, your point was not clear, and it still is a blatant strawman to accuse BoingBoing of
But… we’re Number One, We’re Number One! Right Boing Boing and the WP?
That’s simply wrong, absurd. You might not like the source, but what it says is true, and nobody here has been able to prove the opposite. You are trying to shoot the messenger because you don’t like the message. And you can’t claim the message is untrue. other people here have slandered Bocaranda, but again, no facts. Unless I see Chávez alive, Bocaranda was right, period. The Venezuelan govt was hiding information about his health and lied about it. Period. Those are the facts, WAPO or not.
Comparing Bush’s very temporary high approval rating after 9/11 to Chavez and Obama is very clever, and highly disingenuous. Exactly the kind of “journalism” I’m talking about, taking a sensational fact to distract from the big picture context. The point is for most Americans, based on the MSM reporting, and hyped incidents like this alleged one, Chavez was as bad as Saddam Hussein.
No, it is not. If you are trying to justify atrocities based on approval ratings, it is a good counter argument. In the end, it’s an argumentum ad populum what you are trying to pull. The big picture is: If you do shitty things, those things are shitty, no matter what your approval rating is. I don’t care what most Americans say, to be honest. I do care about what’s going on right now in my country and I do care about foreigners that don’t know the situation and have not lived for extended periods there (or even been there) trying to absolve the govt of responsibility on the situation and try to spin the debate so it’s US-WRONG against poor innocent Chávez/Maduro.
I am very sorry, and I mean it, about all the clusterfuck going on in the US. It is maddening to see how Obama gets a free pass in so many issues, by the same people that opposed everything that Bush did. However, throwing a hissy fit and insulting BoingBoing while defending a corrupt, inefficient govt enemy of the freedom of speech is not gonna solve that.
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We could make a lot of assumptions about you two as well. They’d start with “The dudes doth protest too much, methinks”
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Ran out of arguments?
It seems so.
No need of assumptions. I am here with my true identity, you can google my name if you are curious. Of course we protest and we care, it’s our country, it’s our people. What interest do you have in a country where you have never lived?
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