News of the Restless

If you haven't seen this video yet, you simply must. In the space of five minutes, you get to see how Christopher Hitchens saw the light on waterboarding in an undisclosed location somewhere in North Carolina. Not only does he admit that it IS torture, he also admits that it's not "simulated" drowning, it IS drowning--of a particularly terrorizing kind. And it takes him just a few seconds to "break". He flings away the metal object (poetically called a "dead man's handle") that the torturers have given him to signal--simply by dropping it--that he can't take the torment anymore. It all looks so unceremonious, which makes you wonder how long anyone can withstand such a treatment.

Here's Hitchens in his own words:

Continue reading "17 seconds to moral clarity with Christopher Hitchens" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And who struck it, albeit inadvertently? The CBC. They interviewed a group of new immigrants (there's a special citizenship ceremony for some of them on Canada Day), and who did they interview? Some twit from Venezuela who claims he came here because of "political instability" back home.

Talk about desecrating the day. Can we please leave the political bullshit out of it and just interview someone who came from a REALLY unstable place next time, CBC? Like, oh, I dunno, COLOMBIA?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 06:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh noes, indeed. What is it lately with all these otherwise decent independent news sites going over to the stinky? In the case of the latest from WW4 Report, it seems that a number of Tibetan prayer flags have landed on the eyes of the editors, blinding them to the obvious. They've gotten real snotty with their readers who take exception to them for uncritically publishing Nik Kozloff's "revolutionary" hit piece on Chavecito.

In all the back-and-forth between the WW4R snotballs and those who rightly take them to task, I found this...

From Russ Hallberg, somewhere in cyberspace (who slugs his e-mail "don't repudiate chavez"):

Hugo Chavez should be criticized for his support of China's occupation of Tibet. However, Tibetan nationalists and the Dali Lama are backed by the CIA. It is unlikely a "free" Tibet would be anything more than a puppet for Western interests. Tibetan nationalism is a psyops to solicit the support of the US left for CIA agendas.

World War 4 Report replies: You know, that's pretty paranoid, dude. But we're heartened that at least you think Chávez should be criticized (if not "repudiated").

...which made me wonder: Is it really paranoid to suspect such a thing, considering the CIA has had its tentacles around just about every anti-communist "freedom fighter" in the world since the end of World War II--many of them downright unsavory? In other words, could Russ Hallberg be onto something?

Continue reading "WW4 Report screws the pooch over Tibet" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 01:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

...because kiddies, you're gonna be laughing at all this about six months from now. David Blair of the arch-conservative UK Telegraph is putting all his wishful thinking out there right now for you to mistake for Serious Political Analysis.

At home, however, Mr Chavez is in trouble. State elections are due in November and Venezuela's opposition, which now includes former followers of South America's standard-bearer for socialism, is expected to perform well.

"Expected" by the State Dept. and the blinkered likes of David Blair, perhaps. But to anyone who's seriously paying attention, this opposition is a joke. The turncoats Blair is lauding here, who are expecting to siphon off the "pro-Chavez, BUT" vote, didn't do so well in the last referendum; it was won by abstention, not a resounding majority of anti-Chavistas. Given that there have been so many votes in Venezuela since Chavez came to power, that's kind of understandable. Voter fatigue can so easily set in--especially since voters have to get up early and queue up for hours before they can drop their ballots in the box. Still, one can't deny that there has been a democratic process--in fact a democratic surfeit.

But Blair hasn't been paying attention, so of course he can't be expected to know that.

What has he been paying attention to? Well, seriously silly stuff like this amateur psychoanalysis from one of the turncoats:

Continue reading "File this away for future reference..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How wrong can one man get in three paragraphs? How low can the Wall Street Journal sink? Kiddies, you're about to find out...Dr. Becker has her dissecting gloves on.

It's not been a good month for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez. He had to do an about-face and call on the Marxist guerrilla group FARC to stop trying to overthrow the government of neighboring Colombia, lay down its arms and release its 700 hostages. But that head fake came only after evidence surfaced that Mr. Chávez had actually offered FARC leaders $300 million to support their terrorist operations and had even given them their own nameplate on an office in Venezuela's Pentagon.

Now Mr. Chávez has trouble on the domestic front. Marisabel Rodríguez, the former first lady of Venezuela whom Mr. Chávez divorced in 2004, announced she will run for mayor of one of Venezuela's most important cities in November local elections. She will run as an opposition candidate because she wants to "change the face and way of doing politics in this city and this country," she told reporters.

The candidacy of Ms. Rodríguez, a public relations executive, will no doubt revive stories about the couple's messy divorce. She is apparently a past master at psychological warfare against her ex-husband. "Marisabel doesn't hesitate to talk about Chávez on TV while holding their daughter, and that is the kind of tactic the opposition likes because to fight a media figure like Chávez you need to shock people in some way," says Arturo Serrano, a political scientist, told Britain's Guardian newspaper.

Idiocies in italics.

Memo to Rush Limbaugh's ghostwriter: Gawd, you suck. Let us enumerate the ways...

Continue reading "John Fund: So stupid in so many ways" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

And boy, am I ever laughing my ass off over this.

The Attorney General, Luisa Ortega Diaz, informed that the Public Ministry has opened an investigation against the mayor of Chacao, Leopoldo Lopez, for allegedly attacking an agent of the National Guard at the International Airport at Maiquetia.

The incident allegedly took place in the early morning hours on last Wednesday, in the hours after Lopez returned to Venezuela from New York.

Translation mine. Link added.

And in other bad news for Pretty Leo, we have this item from Venezuelanalysis, which shows that he's no match for...A BLACK MAN!

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's candidate for mayor of Caracas, Aristobulo Isturiz, is the front-runner ahead of the November election, according to the first poll of city voters.

Isturiz, a former education minister who now hosts a show on state television, had the backing of 39 percent in the June 6-19 poll by Caracas-based Hinterlaces. Leopoldo Lopez, a Harvard-educated opposition leader who met with Barack Obama on June 21 in Miami, trailed with 30.1 percent.

The show in question is Dando y Dando, on VTV. Aporrea occasionally shows clips of it, and it's always an enlightening treat for me. Too bad it's not subtitled and more widely distributed on the Internets. Then you'd see why Aristobulo Isturiz is such a terrific candidate, and why Prettyboy has no chance against him...even assuming his disqualification doesn't hold up (which it will).

Posted by Sabina Becker at 09:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Once more, a fascist makes all kinds of bogus claims, including that his human rights were violated. Aporrea has the details of the lie--and the video to refute the liar:

On Thursday, Mario Silva, host of the VTV show "La Hojilla", showed some video footage taken at Maiquetia Airport that refutes the accusations made by the mayor of Chacao, Leopoldo Lopez, who recently claimed he had been held illegally and been physically attacked by five or six members of the DISIP (Venezuelan federal police) in the airport.

The events occurred last Wednesday, when Lopez returned from a trip to the United States where he went, among other reasons, to denounce his political disqualification for receiving illicit donations when he worked at the state oil company PDVSA and received money from the company on behalf of the party Primero Justicia, which was then a "civil society" organization. Lopez also claimed he met with presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Continue reading "Prettyboy Leopoldo Lopez is at it again" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember how I said the newly elected leftist president of Paraguay was by no stretch of the imagination a moderate, and even posted proof?

Well, guess what the Dissociated Press's own hilariously named Christopher Toothaker wrote. And if you guessed "complete bullshit", pat yourself on the back--you are absolutely correct!

Paraguayan President-elect Fernando Lugo was all smiles as he and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez embraced, talked of a revolution for the poor and pledged to build a united Latin America.

But as the former Roman Catholic priest ended a three-nation tour Thursday that also included visits to Venezuela's leftist allies in Bolivia and Ecuador, political analysts predicted he will take a less radical approach to governing.

Continue reading "My head just exploded." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...one of these:

Oh, you think I'm being too harsh? Here:

Continue reading "John McCain is..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 02:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The past week was a good one if you were a courtier. We were instructed by the high priests on television over the past few days to mourn a Sunday morning talk show host, who made $5 million a year and who gave a platform to the powerful and the famous so they could spin, equivocate and lie to the nation. We were repeatedly told by these television courtiers, people like Tom Brokaw and Wolf Blitzer, that this talk show host was one of our nation's greatest journalists, as if sitting in a studio, putting on makeup and chatting with Dick Cheney or George W. Bush have much to do with journalism.

--Chris Hedges, "The Hedonists of Power"

Posted by Sabina Becker at 02:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here, let Editor and Publisher clue you in:

In her Sunday column this week, Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell responds to charges of improper money-making from special-interest groups against two of the newspaper's stars, David Broder and Bob Woodward. The allegations were carried in the current issue of Harper's by Ken Silverstein, the magazine's Washington editor.

Both Broder and Woodward recently took buyouts from the paper but remain as contract workers.

The Post Stylebook's ethics and standards section says only: "We freelance for no one and accept no speaking engagements without permission from department heads." Howell observes: "Broder and Woodward did not check with editors on the appearances Silverstein mentioned."

Continue reading "Ever wonder why I call them media whores?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 09:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...so I've taken it on myself to translate YVKE Mundial's report (via Aporrea) on the murder of an RCTV anchorman:

The Minister of Interior Relations and Justice, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, informed on Tuesday that last weekend's homicide of Javier Garcia "is presumed to be a crime of passion by all we have verified in the case".

The minister called for one minute daily to be devoted to this and other special cases, and said he did not want to give more information so as not to impede the capture of the suspected killer.

The body of the RCTV nightly news anchor, 37 years old, was found in his apartment last Sunday, in the Alto Alegre building, which is located in the suburb of Colinas de Bello Monte.

The director of the Baruta police, Wilfredo Borras, informed that on Sunday, around 7:00 pm, one of Garcia's brothers entered his apartment and forced the door of his bedroom, which had been locked. There he found the corpse, fully dressed. "He wore dark brown pants and a long-sleeved shirt. All that was missing was his socks and shoes," the director said. The body was "in the middle of the bed, lying face-up, with arms extended backwards." The body had two stab wounds in the thigh and three in the chest.

Borras said that Garcia could have been the victim of a robbery. But the death has been used by the private media, principally Globovision and RCTV, to claim that Garcia had been a victim of insecurity, one of the principal themes the opposition uses to attack the government of Hugo Chavez. YVKE Mundial received some 250 commentaries on the two items published over Garcia's death; the great majority of the commentaries came from admirers of the journalist, who were convinced that the young man had died as a result of "insecurity" and demanded that the government crack down hard.

According to Mario Silva, host of the VTV program "La Hojilla", there were no signs of a struggle in Garcia's apartment, nor that the door had been forced. On Monday, the Inspector General's office informed that they were interviewing a witness, who may have seen a suspicious person trying to carry a suitcase out of the apartment building where the journalist had lived.

Okay. Big breath.

I'd like more details on this, and I'm sure I'll get them from Aporrea and YVKE Mundial--but so far, no English-language outlet has given them. They have, however, dutifully reported the spin that is sure to be most pleasing to you-know-who in you-know-where.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because kiddies, this case is gonna get real ugly:

A Venezuelan television anchorman was found slain in his apartment, his body riddled with stab wounds, authorities said Monday.

Javier Garcia worked for Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, which has been fiercely critical of President Hugo Chavez.

Police said a relative found Garcia's body, with five stab wounds, in his bed on Sunday.

[...]

Gladys Zapiain, manager of institutional relations for RCTV, told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, it was too early to determine if Garcia's death was linked to his work at the TV station.

But of course, it's never too early for the AP or RCTV (which is, strangely, still broadcasting!) to spin this as a "how can we link it to Chavez" story!

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wow! Justin Delacour should write angry letters to the AP more often. They came out with a correction today:

In a June 10 story, The Associated Press reported that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in January urged world leaders to back the armed struggle of leftist Colombian rebels. Chavez said at the time that world leaders should recognize the groups as "true armies... insurgent forces that have a political project." However, Chavez also said a day later: "I don't agree with the armed struggle" and urged a political solution to the conflict.

See what happens when you pay attention to what was actually said? You don't have to issue such embarrassing corrections as this. Urging the international community to recognize a guerrilla group as a true army with a political project is hardly the same thing as backing them, or urging world leaders to back them--unless one is determined to misread and misrepresent a democratic, peace-making leader.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 03:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

'Bout time someone did! And who better than a Latin America scholar, who knows how important it is to work with all the facts, the accurate facts, and not just whatever bullshit is convenient to the State Dept., Big Bidness, Big Oil, etc.?

Unfortunately, the AP's bad reporting isn't limited to its Caracas bureau; I've seen it hit Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador with the Stoopid Stick, too. Surely that's not a coincidence, since all three of them are friendly with Chavecito's Venezuela. Why they haven't also beaten up on Chile, Brazil and Argentina, I don't know; all three of their leaders have lent support to Chavecito, too, though they're a bit shy about signing on to the ALBA. (Hmmm, maybe that last is why--it gives the Usual Suspects the false impression that they might still be amenable to neoliberalism, like Colombia and Peru, but have only been playing coy so far.)

I'd write a letter too, and maybe someday I will, but right now I'll just stick to grousing on this blog. And to the AP, I'll let Johnny Cash's finger do the talking:

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The AP has just outdone itself. It's now touting some schmo claiming he's Chavecito's illegitimate son, and that Chavecito's a deadbeat dad. The basis for the claim? A slight resemblance, especially when the guy's photographed in red shirts and Chavecito-like poses. (It diminishes considerably when you consider how many other Venezuelan guys look a lot like Chavecito.)

Break out the blood tests, people, it's gonna be a long, hot, CRAZY summer now.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh my my, what heady days. The Summer Solstice is still 11 days away, and already the silly season has begun, if the whore media are any indication. Everyone's in a tizzy over Chavecito's latest declarations.

Let's start with the big dogs, since it's always the most comical to watch them chase their tails. At the Grey Lady's House of Ill Repute, a certain well-known bowser, Mr. Romero, demonstrates how to do a backflip when trying to square the facts with the counterfactual prejudices one has been working so goshdarn hard to foster:

Continue reading "Media dog days, or an early start to the silly season" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...with a rare dose of honesty:

A B.C. father says the loss of his soldier son to a freak accident in Afghanistan will haunt him forever.

"Of course I grieve," David Snyder told CTV News from his home in Penticton on Sunday about the death of Capt. Jonathan Sutherland Snyder.

"Of course I will have a hollow in my being forever."

[...]

"It's about hazard and chance, and unfortunately there was an accident -- and he died," David Snyder said.

The former reservist also said: "War is stupid. Everybody knows that. Everybody knows that. Well, no they don't. The politicians don't know that."

He also told The Canadian Press that he supported his son and the military, but not the Afghanistan mission.

You had to see the video yesterday, though--they actually showed this intelligent, articulate man questioning the government, the Afghanistan mission, the stupidity of war. For a corporate, corporatist, rah-rah network like CTV, this was really saying something.

Of course, some commenters on the CTV site took him to task for it, accusing him of "playing politics" like Cindy Sheehan. I doubt whether this is "playing" anything. Cindy was right to question the cause for which her son died, and so is this man. It's a credit to see, however, far more voices criticizing the critics than the grieving father, who has every right in a democratic country to express his obviously well-thought-through opinion.

It's not a soldier's prerogative to question his mission; it is that of the civilians, particularly his family, who can hold the government accountable in the event of his death.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Golly, who knew?

The bicycles are produced in Venezuela under a joint venture with an Iranian company.

Chavez rode one of the bikes during his Sunday TV program and joked about what he called the bicycle's "radioactivity" and offered one to U.S. President George W. Bush.

U.S. officials say Chavez is a destabilizing influence in Latin America and also express concern that Iran's nuclear research program could be aimed at weapons production.

Yes, and these Venezuelan/Iranian bikes will give Dubya road rash worse than anything he got since he choked on that pretzel, too. And how do we know this bicycle factory isn't financing the FARC or enriching uranium for the Iranian nuclear missile program, hmmmm?

Honestly. Just one post ago, I thought the AP might have broken with its pattern of general idiocy on Latin America, and here it is, reverting right to it again with a vengeance. That'll teach me to give them any credit.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It must be a slow news day for them. Otherwise, I can't imagine how this passed muster.

Thousands of demonstrators marched on the U.S. Embassy Monday to demand that Washington extradite a former Bolivian defense minister who directed a military crackdown on riots that killed at least 60 people in 2003.

Former Defense Minister Carlos Sanchez Berzain, now a resident of Key Biscayne, Fla., told La Paz-based Radio Fides last week that the U.S. granted him political asylum more than a year ago.

The revelation sparked outrage in El Alto, a sprawling satellite city outside La Paz where dozens of anti-government rioters were gunned down by soldiers in 2003. On Monday, thousands of residents streamed down the hills into La Paz to demand justice for the killings.

"We've come to the doors of the embassy to say 'Enough with the impunity,'" said Edgar Patana, head of an El Alto labor union leading the protest. "The United States has to prove that they have the justice they're always showing off in their media and movies. Bolivia wants that justice."

Incredibly, it goes on and on practically throughout the piece in this vein--no sympathy for the devil. And they accurately mention that this devil, and the devil who employed him (Goni) sparked the landslide that brought Evo Morales into office. They even give Evo the last word. All that's missing is the part about Bechtel and the privatization of Bolivia's water, right down to rainfall, being part and parcel of what sparked the uprisings. Which is still rather remarkable, considering it's the Dissociated Press we're talking about. Normally, they leave all that out and just throw their sympathy behind the worst of the worst.

This guy must be to Bolivians what Luis Posada Carriles is to Venezuela and Cuba. The difference between him and the CubanaBomber? This guy got legal asylum in the US, whereas BushCo is still trying to pretend they don't know the illicitly sneaked-in CubanaBomber.

One thing where there IS no difference, though: Both are being rewarded with the right to stay. And why not? Both are being repaid for services rendered. Precious few other immigrants and asylum claimants have done so much.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By HIMSELF, no less!

Video in Spanish. Chavecito publicly declares he will rectify potentially dangerous errors in the proposed new Intelligence Law, which will completely overhaul the old secret police (DISIP) and military intelligence (DIM) services. As he noted, the old intel organs were often used by the government (and Washington) against the citizenry. He refuses to let that happen again.

This is consistent with his unwillingness to turn the army out to fire on protests and demonstrators (in stark contrast to what his kosher-with-Washington predecessors did on numerous occasions.) Which dates back as far as 1989, in the wake of the Caracazo--the use of the Venezuelan army to violently suppress protests against a president gone power-mad. Chavecito, fortunately, was sick at the time, and therefore not sent to fire on his fellow Venezuelans. He swore never to do that himself, and he kept that vow--even during the coup of '02, when the army could have been sent to kill every coup-plotter at Miraflores, but wasn't--and didn't. (They merely arrested a few key figures and let the rest go, as the Chavistas outside the palace cheered and shouted--and lynched nobody.)

Holy crap, a president who actually listens, is accountable, and corrects his own mistakes. How many more times does he plan to make the lamestream media look like jackasses when they hype a bogus story? This is getting to be a habit with him, and it must be stopped, lest Venezuela begin to look like a radical democracy!

Posted by Sabina Becker at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Someone please tell the Burschen at Der Spiegel that their story was kaputt long before it came out. They're recycling a piece of pure horseshit under the laughable title of "The Colombian Connection: How Hugo Chavez Courted FARC":

They called him "Angel." He was the highest-ranking outside contact for the Colombian guerilla organization FARC. More and more details are now emerging that demonstrate the close relationship between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the jungle terrorists.

He already had a photo of himself posing with Vietnamese general and revolutionary hero Vo Nguyen Giap, and he also planned to suggest to Cuban leader Fidel Castro that he don his combat uniform once again for a joint photo, "Angel" told FARC commander Ivan Marquez. All that was missing in his collection, he said, was a photo with "J.E."

"Angel" was FARC's code name for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and "J.E." was Manuel Marulanda, a.k.a. "Tirofijo" ("Sure Shot"), the legendary leader of Latin America's oldest guerilla organization.

What a shame. Such a provocative lede, and already we know it's all wrong. How? Oh, here. Let Greg Palast school you on how not to read shit into an e-mail:

Continue reading "Oh gawd, now the GERMAN media is in on it too..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

...well, I was gonna say "go fuck a dog", but they've already done that. Here's what was actually said:

President Chavez has repeatedly denied that Venezuela provided any kind of material support to the FARC and that the only contacts his government has had with the FARC was to facilitate the release of hostages held by the FARC. In early 2008 Chavez managed to convince the FARC to release six out of 45 of its high profile hostages.

Two weeks ago, Interior Minister Rodriguez Chacín said he had met personally with FARC leaders during the negotiations of hostage releases which Colombia invited Venezuela to help mediate last August. Rodriguez Chacín assured that the "only contacts" President Chávez had with the FARC were at the request of the Colombian government for the sake of the peace process.

There. So, what's this about a need to "clarify" something? It's been clear for, oh, like FOREVER.

On the other hand, it looks to me like HRW has some clearing-up of its own to do:

Continue reading "Venezuela tells Human Rights Watch to..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 09:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Human Rights Watch has totally screwed the pooch where Venezuela is concerned.

I know, they're supposed to be a serious human-rights organization, but it's kind of hard to take seriously an organization that gets used so often to promote the State Dept.'s war plans over actual human rights (such as the fundamental right not to be killed by Washington's allies, for example). And every so often, they betray their true nature with hysterical press releases that might as well have been written by Andres Oppenheimer or Simon Romero. They'd be great comic fodder, if only people learned to take them the right way--namely, with a truckload of salt on top and a whoopie cushion underneath.

The part of this particular one that makes me laugh loudest is this nifty juxtaposition right here:

Continue reading "It's now official..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay, kiddies...gather round, and be sure to pop your Dramamine before you click Play. Don't be like Auntie Bina, who got vertigo from watching this:

Unka Karl is claiming Richard Armitage was The Leaker? That's bullshit--a convenient version to be fed to the media because it deflects attention from the real culprit. Armitage was a stooge, a flunky, a man who did nothing without authorization and would have been fired if he were really the one who did it off his own bat; no, someone okayed his leaking. Guess who?

Oh, and get this: Valerie Plame was JUST "a CIA employee". Hey Unka Karl! She was a COVERT AGENT, the most secret kind--a NOC. Non-Official Cover, get it? NOC NOC, Unka Karl, it ain't no joke! That's no mere employee (a term that seems to suggest a paper-pusher at a cushy desk in Langley somewhere)--that's someone who can get killed in the line of duty, and not just she but everyone in contact with her as well. And the White House can wash its hands of the whole mess and say, "Well, since she wasn't OFFICIALLY with the embassy, because she was in a private business, we can't protect her if something goes sour. We don't know this person"--even when that person was ferreting out secret info to be fed to them DIRECTLY.

I don't believe his advisorship to John McCain is really "informal", either. "Informal" means nothing; you can be whispering in someone's ear, with nothing down in writing, and still have your commands followed to the letter. A sweeter scheme for plausible deniability would be hard to imagine--especially if, like Unka Karl, you've finally suffered some unpleasant consequences for your power and associations. But not enough. Oh, not nearly enough.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

They still think this is about autonomy and "states' rights". Someone kindly clue them in, please.

Oh wait, I spoke too soon...here's Evo:

Morales has dismissed all three referendums as illegal "surveys" by conservative opposition groups hoping to cripple his government.

"It's not a problem of autonomy," Morales said Sunday. "The problem is that they can't accept that an Indian from the countryside is their president."

Nevertheless, the president made a rare trip Friday to Pando's capital of Cobija to deliver a new fleet of ambulances and announced a US$6 million infrastructure project.

Once more, Evo nails it.

Unfortunately, this is buried about 2/3 down in the piece, which is obviously slanted in favor of the bogus "autonomists", if the amount of space it devotes to them and their lies is any indication. (Well, that and the general tone of sympathy: Big land-owners need "protection" from having their idle estates handed over to the campesinos? Be still my bleeding heart.)

They don't mention this, either--which happened during another ambulance-delivery visit. Probably because it would make the "pro-autonomy" and "states' rights" crusaders look like shits.

Nope, can't have those people showing their true colors in the lamestream media, can we?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 01:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I can't think of any other reason why he would say something like this, unless he's also a plant.

Oh wait...

"Hugo Chavez is a destabilizing factor in the region. Hugo Chavez is dis-accelerating the process of integration. But despite Hugo Chavez the region for the first time in its history has an enormous opportunity to make a qualitative jump and take a predominant place in the world economy."

I did tell you to wait, didn't I? Here's the part I told you to wait for:

Toledo, who was president of Peru from July 2001 until July 2006, worked for the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations before his election.

The World Bank? Yeah, that's a wonderful qualifying factor right there. No wonder he thinks Chavecito is a "destabilizing factor" who is "dis-accelerating the process of integration". The fact is, Chavecito is a stabilizer who is integrating Latin America in a way that shuts the international bankers (especially the World Bank and its Bretton Woods twin, the IMF) out of it and puts people first. Toledo, the failed neo-liberal of Peru, is probably pissed as hell to see all the bogus "progress" he worked so hard for falling apart now that he's no longer in any position to do doodly-squat about it.

Three guesses as to who the real destabilizing, "dis-accelerating" (is that even a word?) influence in Latin America (still) is.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...just in case you needed one:

Yes, she WOULD bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb Iran. Just like John McInsane.

Clearly, none of them have learned anything since they deposed Mohammed Mossadegh to install that horrid Shah. Hey America, you HAD secular democracy in Iran, and you eated it! Now shut up, stay out, and keep your mitts off their oil!

PS: Need more reasons not to vote for her? How about her boogying with the Religious Reich? Really, there's not a dime's worth of difference between her and Hagee-hugger McCain on this one.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 08:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

See, this is why I call CNN the Chicken Noodle Network:

Anderson Cooper is shocked, SHOCKED to learn that his fellow CNNer, Jessica Yellin, who worked for a time at ABC, was pressured by network execs during her ABC days not to do hard-hitting pieces on the war, the White House, and its scurrying cockroach inhabitants.

Continue reading "You can't tell the truth--there's a war on!" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From Aporrea, a little tidbit but a revealing one:

Against the editorial lines from Colombia and Venezuela that claim there is a "close" relationship between the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez Frias, Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba, and the FARC rebels of Colombia, Cordoba confirmed that neither she, nor the Venezuelan leader had known of the death of the historic leader of the FARC, Manuel Marulanda Velez.

"My attention has often been drawn to how they say here that we (Cordoba and Chavez) are the mouthpieces of the FARC, but neither Chavez nor I knew that Marulanda had died...until the last, he did things his own way, he died a natural death," the senator said.

Translation mine.

Did you get that? Neither Cordoba nor Chavez knew that Marulanda had died until after the fact. They had to read about it in the morning papers, same as everybody else. Some "close relations"! I would think that if Chavez had known Marulanda wasn't well, and he really was that close to him, he would have had him flown to Cuba for treatment, no?

This should lay to rest all the media drivel about Chavez financing and arming the FARC, too. Until someone (and not someone pointing to the Magic Laptop, either) can locate the whereabouts of a big chunk of money that disappeared from Venezuela and appeared in Colombia (a large arms cache, ditto), I think it's safe to say that this latest media campaign against the left, like ol' "Sure-Shot" Marulanda himself, has begun to push up the proverbial daisies.

May it rest in peace.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 02:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This one's just for Ed in Miami--as a gentle reminder of what populism isn't.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not a dime's worth, apparently, beyond the fact that the one is federal and the other provincial. The one's from out west, the other's from up north. Our "new Conservative" PM is well known for his penchant for recycling right-wing failures from other hardline Conservative governments-that-failed. Apparently, in Harpoland, the fecal matter falls up--just as in BushCo's Amurrica. And my, how the sewage flows uphill here in Ontario lately--more specifically, all the way from Walkerton to Parliament Hill. Meet the New Tory, same as the Old Tory (not to be confused with the respected Red Tory, now alas a Dead Tory).

A certain failed premier of Ontario is obviously the template for the "new Conservative" Harpo. His latest environmentally dubious recycle? None other than a goober from the late and unlamented Mike Harris regime:

Continue reading "Harper, Harris--what's the diff?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Anyone who's been keeping an unbiased track of Venezuelan electoral politics already knows why Leopoldo Lopez won't be able to run for office again: He's a plain little plug-ugly thug, with a lengthy history of violence. But trust the lamestream media whores to spin it a full 180 degrees from the truth...

Leopoldo Lopez won his last election as mayor of an affluent Caracas district with 81 percent of the vote. Women supporters mobbed him at a recent Mother's Day appearance, posing for photos while he and his wife handed out roses.

But the popular politician's plan to challenge incumbent Juan Barreto, mayor of Greater Caracas, later this year could be thwarted by 26 criminal charges against him — accusations Lopez says were trumped up by an operative of President Hugo Chavez.

Continue reading "Pretty Boy Lopez is in trouble" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 01:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...has issued some rosy forecasts for total pie in the Iraqi sky. Behold:

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq said Saturday that al-Qaida's network in the country has never been closer to defeat, and he praised Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for his moves to rein in Shiite and Sunni militant groups.

Ryan Crocker's comments came as Iraqi forces have been conducting crackdowns on al-Qaida militants in the northern city of Mosul and on Shiite militiamen in the southern city of Basra. Thousands of Iraqi forces also moved into the Shiite militia stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad last week imposing control for the first time in years.

But truces with the powerful Mahdi Army militia that have calmed violence in Basra and paved the way for the Sadr City deployment have been strained in the past two days.

Continue reading "The aptly named Ambassador CROCK-er" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh really?

Michael Weiner, who egomaniacally calls himself "the Savage Nation", devotes nearly thirteen whole minutes of his gross abuse of the public airwaves to, you guessed it, celebrating the diagnosed brain cancer of Senator Ted Kennedy:

Transcript of his incoherent ramblings at Media Matters.

There's so much wrong with this man that it's hard to know where to begin. But let's make a valiant effort here...

Continue reading "No, he's not gloating." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One thing about that Old Grey Lady...she's one helluva madam. Yes, folks, the NY Times is pimping for Alvaro Uribe again. And look: there's one of her working girls now, out on the corner...

Tension between Colombia and Venezuela increased Sunday after Colombia's defense minister rejected an accusation by Venezuela's government that 60 Colombian troops had illegally entered a border region of Venezuela known to be a redoubt for Colombian guerrilla groups.

Yes, folks, that's the incomparable Simon Romero again, parading around in his miniskirt and high heels. Give that man a hand for his prowess at handjobbery!

Now, pay close attention, kiddies. Auntie Bina, a true lady despite her natural red hair and her plebeian origins, is about to teach you something about the difference between journalistic credibility and mere prostitution.

Continue reading "Simon Romero besmirches himself again" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 05:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(Translation: "Uribe attempts to deflect attention from himself by attacking Chavez...'And we pulled this red rabbit out of the computer. Chavez sent it to the FARC!' As Anibal Nazoa said, 'In Plan Colombia, you can see from a mile away that the gringos think we're all fools!'" Meanwhile, the computer's mouse wisely decides to skedaddle.)

There's been a lot of fuss in the media lately about some computers which allegedly survived a bombing raid on March 1 in Ecuador. Here is a random sampling of what's been running through my head concerning the kerfuffle:

Continue reading "A few random thoughts about laptops, Interpol and Colombia" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Bill Oh-Really can't do news without a teleprompter. What a trouper!

Yeah, he really is that chummy guy he presents himself as on FUX Snooze. And look, isn't that a pig flying by?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...stuff David Horowitz in it. His "Campus Crusade for Fascism" is so over.

I'm guessing his real objection to this 'toon is that it's too accurate.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The reason I ask that long-winded question is this "opinion", which is presented as if it were fact, in the National Pest, Canada's would-be paper of record:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been accused of many things: squandering his country's oil income, suppressing opposition media, using his army to intimidate the citizenry. Now, documents recovered from computers belonging to FARC, the drug-funded Leninist insurgency based in Colombia, suggest Mr. Chavez may be actively undermining the sovereign government of its western neighbour. If so, the Western Hemisphere may be about to gain its first internationally designated state sponsor of terrorism.

Continue reading "When they don't sign their names, what does it say about what they have to say?" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 12:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

...the lamestream media dredges up Chavecito's dreary, teary ex...again.

How convenient: last time she shot off her mouth about him (claiming, dubiously, that he abused and threatened her), they dug her up on Valentine's Day. Now it's Mother's Day, and she's claiming he threatened to take their daughter away from her.

Talk about a sense of occasion, eh?

You gotta hand it to them: they sure know how to hand it to her. "It" being the script for her pathetic bids for attention, dumbass. Because as everyone in the lamestream media should know but doesn't, if he were really suing to take her daughter (who is also his) away, there would be an actual report of legal papers filed.

And if he really abused her, wouldn't she have to prove it in court, too?

And yet, strangely, no papers have been filed. For any of these things. Ever.

Say! You don't suppose the media is shitting all over him again as part of yet another pre-coup crapaganda campaign, do you?

Nah. Of course we know they would never do that.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Santa Cruz may want to suck on this:

The national electoral commission (CNE) in Bolivia ratified the revocation of two autonomy votes, those of Pando and Tarija, for the 1st and 22nd of June respectively, on Thursday. The decision stood even though representative Jeronimo Pinheiro, the vice-president of the CNE, did not sign on.

According to commission president Jose Luis Exeni, representative Pinheiro was present during a meeting this past May 2. However, the representative, from Pando Department, "decided not to vote", claiming to be "under great pressure from his region, especially the Prefect, Leopoldo Fernandez."

The electoral authority said that Pinheiro's action constitutes a "grave violation" of electoral process, and informed that the correct procedure would be that those representatives not in favor, vote against.

Translation mine.

That giant smacking sound you just heard was a big fat bitch-slap to the so-called "autonomy movement", the one that the lamestream media in the English-speaking world (especially Andres "Narcissist Leninist" Schloppenheimer) claim is gonna be the death of Evo. Well, guess what: He's still alive and well, and keeping his promises unimpeded. And he's more popular than ever, I'll bet--leaders with cojones and a predilection for keeping their promises generally are.

Venezuela and Ecuador are watching this especially closely, for reasons of their own. However, seeing as the Santa Cruz vote was an absolute shambles, with no OAS observers, obvious evidence of fraud and mass cremations of pre-marked "yes" ballots (uh, those would be the fraud), plus this latest news that the Tarija and Pando votes have just been shredded, it looks bad for those with the treasonous intentions.

And from where I sit, it looks downright hilarious. These "autonomy" guys, for all their Nazi trappings and intimidation tactics, are a nasty, drunken gang that can't shoot straight. Too used to snorting coke, living like feudal lords and abusing indigenous women and not used enough to actual democracy, I guess.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because it just might explode from the sheer incongruity and hilarity of it all:

Bill Oh-Really, race-baiter extraordinaire, tries to distance himself from his fellow hatemongers (Limbaugh and Hannity), as does Dick "Election Fucker, Toe Sucker" Morris. Is it just me, or does the Little Dick sound EXACTLY like Templeton the Rat?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 01:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

...let's have a CLASS WAR!

On second thought, says the National Pest, maybe not. Too bad for them that Linda McQuaig, Conrad Black's pet hate and Terence Corcoran's nemesis, is on the case. And, unlike Corcoran, she doesn't like to make lies and damn lies out of statistics:

Continue reading "One, two, three, four..." »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 01:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You did, Tweety...you DID tee a coup d'etat!

Roto-Reuters UK and the Washington Whore Post are both cheerleading quite blatantly for Evo's opponents, undoubtedly to soften up us gullible anglophones for the "inevitable", undemocratic outcome of a deeply antidemocratic, unilateral (not to mention illegal) "referendum". Gee, where have we seen this before?

Too bad for this cutesy little media offensive that some of us can read Spanish, and one of us has seen fit to translate...this:

Continue reading "Santa Cruzin' for a bruisin'" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh, it's just France kissing both the dimpled cheeks of Chavecito...again.

France's top diplomat sought help from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday to press for the liberation of rebel-held hostages in Colombia.

Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is aiming at restarting talks to free hostages who include French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt.

"We spoke about the liberation of the hostages, all of the hostages, of course Ingrid, but also all of the others," Kouchner said after emerging from the presidential palace. He revealed few details of the conversation.

Kouchner has said he believes Chavez can play an important role. The leftist rebels express an ideological affinity with the socialist president and have freed six Colombian hostages to his government so far this year.

Heh. Looks like all those France-haters left over from the run-up to Gulf War II can now join all the Venezuela-haters in screaming over this. (Why do you people hate the freeing of hostages, people?)

And, bonus! The AP has had a moment of correctitude in saying that the FARC are sympathetic to Chavecito, rather than the other way 'round as usual.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And no, he doesn't have plausible deniability here:

Image taken from the Denver Post.

I thought he was tired of carrying water for the Repugs. When did he switch back, and what put that shit-eating no-dignity grin on his face? Oxy again? Damn. When'd he get back on that? Or (as I suspect) did he simply never get off it?

If he wants a Rocky Mountain High, I wish he'd OD on that. He's clearly not man enough for adrenaline.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mike Malloy hangs Rush Limbaugh's fat ass out to dry on the air. Courtesy of Malmo Blue's Equal Radio.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 09:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's how to do it, if you're a 24/7/365 "news" channel on cable TV:

Step 1: Hear right-wing flying monkeys screeching about how "liberal" you are.

Step 2: Panic and hire a second-string conservatard radio bloviator (who is also a walking, talking human hemorrhoid).

Step 3: Watch credibility, followed closely by ratings, go down, down, down.

Step 4: Panic some more and hire another second-string conservatard, this one from a third-rate conservatard channel. Oh and did I mention he's also a former White House press flack who quit not because he had cancer but because he wanted to make more money?

Step 5: Watch credibility and ratings go comma comma down dooby doo down down.

Way to go, Chicken Noodle Network. Keep circlin' that drain and pray it doesn't suck you down. After all, a proven formula for failure will work differently if you follow it twice, right?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

You can always count on Conrad Moffat Black, His Lordship of Crossharbour (and lately, of the Penitentiary) to exemplify model behavior and propriety. And to illustrate, in graphic terms, just what conservatism is all about.

And now, you can also grin at the sweetness of the Lords of Karma, because the above photo won its shooter a prize:

A photo of former Canadian media baron Conrad Black giving the finger to reporters during his trial in Chicago has taken top prize for spot news at the second annual National Pictures of the Year awards competition.

[...]

The Conrad Black photo was taken by David Chidley of the Canadian Press during the businessman's trial, in which Black was convicted of obstructing justice and defrauding shareholders of his former newspaper company, Hollinger International Inc.

Black is currently serving a 6 1/2-year sentence at a jail in central Florida.

Couldn't have been more richly deserved, eh?

Posted by Sabina Becker at 03:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Billo is pissy because people aren't giving the Pope a free pass anymore:

Continue reading "Mr. Oh-Really gets all infallible on us" »

Posted by Sabina Becker at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I guess now we know who's mightier than the NRA's late shill.

And frankly, a cute widdle orange tabby kitteh is more to be trusted with a firearm than any old racist far-right demento who ran away from a picture of a little girl killed by a gun-totin' classmate.

Posted by Sabina Becker at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From the But We're Doing It For The Children! files:

Venezuela has forced U.S. cartoon "The Simpsons" off its airwaves, calling the show a potentially bad influence on children, and filled its morning slot with reruns of the beach-and-bikini show "Baywatch."

"The Simpsons" satirical take on a dysfunctional American family had been shown, dubbed into Spanish, on the Televen network at an 11 am slot.

"Today I believe they started broadcasting something else," said a spokesman at Venezuela's broadcasting regulator Conatel. "They were infringing many things in the television and radio social responsibility law."

Conatel said it started proceedings against the morning airing of the show after complaints from viewers.

Televen has replaced the long-running and popular cartoon with "Baywatch Hawaii," late seasons of the "Baywatch" series that made actress Pamela Anderson a household name.

Please hold the jokes about Pam's silicone udders somehow being more wholesome children's entertainment than The Simpsons. (Which, I agree, is not a kiddie show; you need an adult brain and sense of humor to appreciate it fully. But at least it's not built around a massive, hoo-honkin' pair of fake titties.)

What's really ridiculous here is that