This is a letter to the editor of the Eureka Reporter that I wrote last Thursday night. It was published today, Tuesday Feb. 6, 2007. This letter is in response to this editorial:
Failure to seek accountability has left citizens confused by Dave Berman, Eureka, 2/6/2007
Glenn Franco Simmons recently described Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a dictator, tyrant, strongman and authoritarian. If Simmons can support this by citing stacked courts and monopolized rule, what should we conclude about Supreme Court Justices Alito and Roberts, six years of a rubber-stamping one-party legislative branch and only one veto but more than 1,000 signing statements?
If we can't claim ignorance of the Chavez regime's ruthlessness, as Simmons asserts, what is it that enables us to look the other way from those responsible for torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, willful neglect in New Orleans and depraved indifference to the constitutional role of the Congress in making war?
If Chavez is guilty of intimidating the media, as Simmons reported the U.S. State Department had determined, what are we to make of reporting so unquestioning that it continues to leave the unanswered questions of 9/11 unasked? So un-skeptical that it was completely wrong about the threat of WMD in Iraq (despite millions protesting in the street who knew better)? So cowed that even when felonies (warrantless wiretapping) are openly admitted there is still no call for accountability?
Chavez's "presidency" was referred to in quotes, as can often be seen in reference to another leader first appointed by the Supreme Court and later "re-elected" with voting equipment that could never be recounted or otherwise verified.
Simmons goes on to use many other colorful words, such as "disappearances," "extrajudicial killings" and "increased militarization of public administration." Should these words make Americans uncomfortable? Last fall, Congress passed the Military Commissions Act eliminating habeas corpus, meaning we can be jailed without charges, thus enabling "disappearances." U.S. military forces are augmented by paid mercenaries from Halliburton and Blackwater, making a living doing "extrajudicial killings." And last fall, Congress nullified Posse Comitatus, a 19th century law prohibiting the use of the U.S. military for domestic policing, yet another step toward "increased militarization of public administration."
I'm not so much interested in Chavez or anyone's opinion of him, really. What is more important is that newspaper editors acknowledge what is in plain sight. Reticence is tacit approval, a rather insidious way to throw in one's lot. The failure to question and seek accountability has left many good citizens understandably confused, or even "certain" with knowledge that is false. If Venezuelans are ruled by a dictator, tyrant, strongman and authoritarian, what have we here?
Dave Berman is the author of We Do Not Consent, both the book and blog. http://WeDoNotConsent.blogspot.com.
the WDC think tanks put a lot of money and energy into spinning Chavez as a dictator...and anyone who buys into this crap is just another jingoist moron who will passively agree to letting the USA send troops down there to liberate them and spread democracy as we rape them for their oil...
read: 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' by John Perkins for a look into how all this works...
by
anechoic (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 50 comments)
on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 at 10:29:49 AM
I can't tell if you got or missed the point of this
Sincerely, I don't dispute your comment, but I'm not sure if the point of what I posted came through clearly for you. This was a LTTE responding to a conservative newspaper editor caricatured by your comment. Now, he's never described the fascist American empire I suspect we both see all around us. So here was a chance to show that his own words about Chavez could also fairly describe our own domestic dictatorship. I was attempting to prevent him from having it both ways.
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Dave Berman (34 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 23 comments)
on Wednesday, February 7, 2007 at 6:30:49 PM
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' by John Perkins
Everyone should read 'Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' by John Perkins. Is the Carlyle group going to give up? I think not. Read "The Iron Triangle" by Dan Brody. The mainstream media is certainly bought and paid for by our own government.
How about Chavez for US president?
Cheers,
Aimee
DataOptions.com
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Aimee (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 113 comments)
on Thursday, February 8, 2007 at 10:50:09 AM
The Consent of the Governed is supposed to be the source from which government derives "just Power," according to the Declaration of Independence. An orderly transition of leaders is important, provided this derivation of power is properly observed. After 2000 and 2004, in America, I don't believe that it is. In theory, you are correct that we should see regime change in America in 2008, but can we really put anything past fascist war criminals? I have the same concerns here that you have about Venezuela.
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Dave Berman (34 articles, 0 quicklinks, 4 diaries, 23 comments)
on Thursday, February 8, 2007 at 1:27:30 AM
I am unwilling to have him or anyone else overthrow our Constitution as he seems to have done the Venezuelan Constitution. Chavez will be President of Venezuela for the next twenty-five years or longer. Does that not bother all his worshippers? The poor people of Venezuela are trading one type of dictator for another one. He is like Castro and Cuba has been anything but a Democracy in my entire life. I was born 66 years ago. Bush will be gone in January 2009. Chavez will be there until the next dictator assassinates him. It seems to be the way of South America.
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pratliff94 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 940 comments)
on Thursday, February 8, 2007 at 5:10:52 PM
