i knew it was too good to be true
Jan. 20th, 2007 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rktVenezuela's Chavez gets initial approval to approve laws by decree
The Associated PressPublished: January 18, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela: The National Assembly has given initial approval to a measure that would let President Hugo Chavez enact laws by decree for 1 1/2 years, a key step in what the leftist leader calls an accelerating march toward socialism.
The law is expected to easily win final approval next week in a second session of the legislature, which is filled entirely with Chavez allies. Among the laws planned by Chavez are moves to nationalize Venezuela's main telecommunications company and the electricity and natural gas sectors.
The overarching measure that would allow Chavez to pass laws by decree was approved unanimously in its first reading Thursday after a four-hour discussion by lawmakers. National Assembly President Cilia Flores said final approval is to come next week, though she did not specify a day.
"This process is unstoppable," lawmaker Juan Montenegro Nunez told the National Assembly. "This process is a historic necessity."
Emboldened by landslide re-election last month, Chavez says he is seeking special powers to approve "revolutionary laws" that would mean political, economic, social, national security and defense reforms. Only some of those changes have been spelled out as lawmakers have considered Chavez's request for the broad "mother law" that would give him special legislative powers.
The National Assembly has been entirely filled with Chavez's allies since opposition parties boycotted 2005 elections, citing concerns about fairness. Chavez has said his opponents pulled out of those elections because they knew they had little support.
Opposition politician Gerardo Blyde criticized the proposed law, saying "what is becoming evident is that all the powers are one single power in Venezuela — Hugo Chavez."
Flores said as the debate opened Thursday: "The president has asked for a year and a half, and he will have a year and a half to adapt all of these laws to the new political model."
Separately, Chavez has formed a commission to recommend sweeping changes to the country's constitution. He has defended the plans to reform the constitution for the second time since he took office in 1999, saying the current charter permits constant revision to adapt to "moral" changes in the world.
He said the constitution must be revised to eliminate parts "where the oligarchy, the counterrevolution managed to infiltrate their concepts."
Chavez said Venezuelans would decide whether to approve constitutional reforms in a referendum, and that the vote would likely be held by the end of this year.
Among the revisions, Chavez has said he is seeking an end to presidential term limits, which would allow him to run again for the presidency in December 2012.
Chavez also is looking at internal government reforms, and has promised to push through a law capping the salaries of state employees.
On the economic front, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro suggested that nationalization also was on the horizon for the mining sector. "The basic industries of minerals should be in the hands of the national state," he said Thursday while attending a summit in Brazil.
He did not elaborate on what that would mean for private companies with mining agreements for gold or diamonds, or whether it implied a total state takeover or majority stakes for the government in mining operations. For decades, state conglomerates have dominated the mining of iron and bauxite to produce steel and aluminum.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/19/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Chavez.php
not to mention
Venezuelan leader's move against TV station prompts outcry
The Associated PressPublished: January 18, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela: The bespectacled talk show host grimaces into the television camera, raises a finger and accuses President Hugo Chavez of using "tropical neo-fascism to trample Venezuelans' rights."
Sweat beads up above Miguel Angel Rodriguez's eyebrows as he berates government officials, calling them liars and challenging them to prove their accusations that he is an "imperialist" pawn of the CIA.
Welcome to Radio Caracas Television, the channel Chavez loves to hate.
As he accelerates his push toward socialism, Chavez has decided that Venezuela's oldest private TV station must go off the air for good when its broadcast license expires on May 28.
"Their days are numbered. Squeal, kick, whatever they do: the license of that fascist channel is gone," Chavez said Saturday. "RCTV's signal will be nationalized for Venezuelans."
Emboldened by his sweeping re-election victory, Chavez now seems intent on transforming Venezuela's broadcast media. An expanding web of state-run and state-financed radio and TV stations shapes his image. And almost every Sunday, he preaches socialist ideals on "Hello President," his folksy talk-show program that runs for five hours or more.
RCTV, in contrast, has been a constant irritant to Chavez. Along with a cadre of other private TV channels and newspapers he accuses of spreading disinformation and conspiring against him, he says RCTV produces "poison" through "grotesque shows" that promote consumerism and violence.
Top RCTV executive Marcel Granier insists his channel has done nothing wrong and is being punished for criticizing the government as part of an "autocratic scheme." He argues RCTV has the legal right to keep broadcasting until 2022, and plans to challenge Chavez in court.
RCTV has been one of Venezuela's leading TV networks since 1953, broadcasting a mix of news, talk shows, sports, soap operas and its own version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"
The weekly program "Radio Rochela," which like "Saturday Night Live" often lampoons politicians, was a Venezuelan institution long before Chavez was first elected in 1998.
For now, the studios still bustle with giggling teenagers seeking autographs from soap stars and comedians practicing poking fun at Chavez for "Radio Rochela." Another recent skit mocked Chavez's mentor, Fidel Castro, with an impersonator dancing and rapping in olive-green fatigues, saying: "Give me more gasoline!"
But the mood has grown somber among RCTV's 2,500 employees.
The station's supporters call Chavez's threat to deny RCTV a new license an example of how freedom of speech will be sacrificed in the "socialist republic of Venezuela" that Chavez proclaimed as he began his third term. Nearly 100 horn-honking cars snaked through Caracas Sunday in one protest caravan, with "Don't Mess With The Media!" scrawled in white shoe polish across their windows.
The case also has drawn international attention, with statements of concern from the Organization of American States, the Roman Catholic Church, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
On Wednesday, the Salvadoran Association of Radio Broadcasters aired a statement condemning the measures against RCTV and expressing "solidarity with Radio Caracas Television and all of the radio broadcasters of Venezuela."
Chavez says he fully respects freedom of speech, and that turning over the channel's frequency to a "community" station will help democratize the airwaves, providing "communication power to those who almost never have a voice."
Venezuela's radio dial now includes hundreds of mostly state-financed and Chavez-friendly "community" stations, and three state-run TV channels have been launched since Chavez took office. They feature musicians singing songs about "El Comandante," segments calling opposition leaders CIA agents and documentaries about Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Cuban-produced cartoons feature peasants who prevent invading soldiers from seizing a palm-dotted island.
Chavez also finances Telesur, the new Latin American network meant to provide a South American alternative to CNN. Telesur already claims 2.5 million cable viewers in 17 countries. The Venezuelan government holds a 51 percent stake, with smaller shares owned by Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay and Bolivia. Next up is Radiosur, an effort to share content with existing radio stations across the continent.
The move against RCTV won't likely end Chavez's efforts to rewrite the rules that govern Venezuela's airwaves. Another frequent forum for opposition views is 24-hour all-news channel Globovision. Without elaborating, Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon said authorities want to set up "a structure in which the media owner isn't the owner of 24-hour messages, 365 days a year."
RCTV, Globovision and two other channels are what Chavez has called the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." He has accused RCTV of one-sided coverage and said the channels effectively supported a 2002 failed coup by broadcasting cartoons and movies instead of the street protests that aided his return to power. Pro-Chavez mobs gathered outside RCTV and other stations during the coup, shouting insults and in some cases hurling rocks.
Two of those four channels have since toned down their criticism, while RCTV and Globovision have stayed their course despite sometimes-violent demonstrations. During pro-Chavez protests in 2004, an Associated Press reporter watched as a Chavez supporter fired shots at RCTV's studios while others rammed an ice cream truck into the wall, then set the truck afire
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/18/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Chavez-vs-TV.php?page=1
dear chavez,
the last time you taunted bush, it was funny. now? you're asking to be made a martyr and folk hero and it ain't cute. you've just stuck an "attack me" sign on your own back.
there are any of a number of people who will tell you that acting like this is not the way to win my love. hissing "fascist" is less than two steps from pulling a godwin's out of your sleeve. shutting down those who snark you, based on truth or heresy, is not by any means impressive.
i'll leave your little crush on castro alone. so what if the man kicked out, literally, boatloads of mentally ill folks? who cares if he's hated on the gay? he's your cuban idol.
i might be able to support some of these antics, but i've seen hedwig far too many times to not remember that absolute power corrupts (absoutely). or, maybe, if i hadn't done the journalism thing in college to think that even a media-entity that is bought off by capitalistic entities in some cases is still a neccessity in the context of providing information (albeit, still filtered) the government might not. (which is also not to forget that public owned media entities are even more absolutely necesity.) i just don't have enough faith in you to ensure "community owned" entities will stay that way, particularly since the current state-run ones don't particularly fulfill your claims.
anyway, for fuck's sake, just stop it.
no love
r
The Associated PressPublished: January 18, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela: The National Assembly has given initial approval to a measure that would let President Hugo Chavez enact laws by decree for 1 1/2 years, a key step in what the leftist leader calls an accelerating march toward socialism.
The law is expected to easily win final approval next week in a second session of the legislature, which is filled entirely with Chavez allies. Among the laws planned by Chavez are moves to nationalize Venezuela's main telecommunications company and the electricity and natural gas sectors.
The overarching measure that would allow Chavez to pass laws by decree was approved unanimously in its first reading Thursday after a four-hour discussion by lawmakers. National Assembly President Cilia Flores said final approval is to come next week, though she did not specify a day.
"This process is unstoppable," lawmaker Juan Montenegro Nunez told the National Assembly. "This process is a historic necessity."
Emboldened by landslide re-election last month, Chavez says he is seeking special powers to approve "revolutionary laws" that would mean political, economic, social, national security and defense reforms. Only some of those changes have been spelled out as lawmakers have considered Chavez's request for the broad "mother law" that would give him special legislative powers.
The National Assembly has been entirely filled with Chavez's allies since opposition parties boycotted 2005 elections, citing concerns about fairness. Chavez has said his opponents pulled out of those elections because they knew they had little support.
Opposition politician Gerardo Blyde criticized the proposed law, saying "what is becoming evident is that all the powers are one single power in Venezuela — Hugo Chavez."
Flores said as the debate opened Thursday: "The president has asked for a year and a half, and he will have a year and a half to adapt all of these laws to the new political model."
Separately, Chavez has formed a commission to recommend sweeping changes to the country's constitution. He has defended the plans to reform the constitution for the second time since he took office in 1999, saying the current charter permits constant revision to adapt to "moral" changes in the world.
He said the constitution must be revised to eliminate parts "where the oligarchy, the counterrevolution managed to infiltrate their concepts."
Chavez said Venezuelans would decide whether to approve constitutional reforms in a referendum, and that the vote would likely be held by the end of this year.
Among the revisions, Chavez has said he is seeking an end to presidential term limits, which would allow him to run again for the presidency in December 2012.
Chavez also is looking at internal government reforms, and has promised to push through a law capping the salaries of state employees.
On the economic front, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro suggested that nationalization also was on the horizon for the mining sector. "The basic industries of minerals should be in the hands of the national state," he said Thursday while attending a summit in Brazil.
He did not elaborate on what that would mean for private companies with mining agreements for gold or diamonds, or whether it implied a total state takeover or majority stakes for the government in mining operations. For decades, state conglomerates have dominated the mining of iron and bauxite to produce steel and aluminum.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/19/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Chavez.php
not to mention
Venezuelan leader's move against TV station prompts outcry
The Associated PressPublished: January 18, 2007
CARACAS, Venezuela: The bespectacled talk show host grimaces into the television camera, raises a finger and accuses President Hugo Chavez of using "tropical neo-fascism to trample Venezuelans' rights."
Sweat beads up above Miguel Angel Rodriguez's eyebrows as he berates government officials, calling them liars and challenging them to prove their accusations that he is an "imperialist" pawn of the CIA.
Welcome to Radio Caracas Television, the channel Chavez loves to hate.
As he accelerates his push toward socialism, Chavez has decided that Venezuela's oldest private TV station must go off the air for good when its broadcast license expires on May 28.
"Their days are numbered. Squeal, kick, whatever they do: the license of that fascist channel is gone," Chavez said Saturday. "RCTV's signal will be nationalized for Venezuelans."
Emboldened by his sweeping re-election victory, Chavez now seems intent on transforming Venezuela's broadcast media. An expanding web of state-run and state-financed radio and TV stations shapes his image. And almost every Sunday, he preaches socialist ideals on "Hello President," his folksy talk-show program that runs for five hours or more.
RCTV, in contrast, has been a constant irritant to Chavez. Along with a cadre of other private TV channels and newspapers he accuses of spreading disinformation and conspiring against him, he says RCTV produces "poison" through "grotesque shows" that promote consumerism and violence.
Top RCTV executive Marcel Granier insists his channel has done nothing wrong and is being punished for criticizing the government as part of an "autocratic scheme." He argues RCTV has the legal right to keep broadcasting until 2022, and plans to challenge Chavez in court.
RCTV has been one of Venezuela's leading TV networks since 1953, broadcasting a mix of news, talk shows, sports, soap operas and its own version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?"
The weekly program "Radio Rochela," which like "Saturday Night Live" often lampoons politicians, was a Venezuelan institution long before Chavez was first elected in 1998.
For now, the studios still bustle with giggling teenagers seeking autographs from soap stars and comedians practicing poking fun at Chavez for "Radio Rochela." Another recent skit mocked Chavez's mentor, Fidel Castro, with an impersonator dancing and rapping in olive-green fatigues, saying: "Give me more gasoline!"
But the mood has grown somber among RCTV's 2,500 employees.
The station's supporters call Chavez's threat to deny RCTV a new license an example of how freedom of speech will be sacrificed in the "socialist republic of Venezuela" that Chavez proclaimed as he began his third term. Nearly 100 horn-honking cars snaked through Caracas Sunday in one protest caravan, with "Don't Mess With The Media!" scrawled in white shoe polish across their windows.
The case also has drawn international attention, with statements of concern from the Organization of American States, the Roman Catholic Church, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
On Wednesday, the Salvadoran Association of Radio Broadcasters aired a statement condemning the measures against RCTV and expressing "solidarity with Radio Caracas Television and all of the radio broadcasters of Venezuela."
Chavez says he fully respects freedom of speech, and that turning over the channel's frequency to a "community" station will help democratize the airwaves, providing "communication power to those who almost never have a voice."
Venezuela's radio dial now includes hundreds of mostly state-financed and Chavez-friendly "community" stations, and three state-run TV channels have been launched since Chavez took office. They feature musicians singing songs about "El Comandante," segments calling opposition leaders CIA agents and documentaries about Argentine-born revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Cuban-produced cartoons feature peasants who prevent invading soldiers from seizing a palm-dotted island.
Chavez also finances Telesur, the new Latin American network meant to provide a South American alternative to CNN. Telesur already claims 2.5 million cable viewers in 17 countries. The Venezuelan government holds a 51 percent stake, with smaller shares owned by Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay and Bolivia. Next up is Radiosur, an effort to share content with existing radio stations across the continent.
The move against RCTV won't likely end Chavez's efforts to rewrite the rules that govern Venezuela's airwaves. Another frequent forum for opposition views is 24-hour all-news channel Globovision. Without elaborating, Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon said authorities want to set up "a structure in which the media owner isn't the owner of 24-hour messages, 365 days a year."
RCTV, Globovision and two other channels are what Chavez has called the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." He has accused RCTV of one-sided coverage and said the channels effectively supported a 2002 failed coup by broadcasting cartoons and movies instead of the street protests that aided his return to power. Pro-Chavez mobs gathered outside RCTV and other stations during the coup, shouting insults and in some cases hurling rocks.
Two of those four channels have since toned down their criticism, while RCTV and Globovision have stayed their course despite sometimes-violent demonstrations. During pro-Chavez protests in 2004, an Associated Press reporter watched as a Chavez supporter fired shots at RCTV's studios while others rammed an ice cream truck into the wall, then set the truck afire
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/18/america/LA-GEN-Venezuela-Chavez-vs-TV.php?page=1
dear chavez,
the last time you taunted bush, it was funny. now? you're asking to be made a martyr and folk hero and it ain't cute. you've just stuck an "attack me" sign on your own back.
there are any of a number of people who will tell you that acting like this is not the way to win my love. hissing "fascist" is less than two steps from pulling a godwin's out of your sleeve. shutting down those who snark you, based on truth or heresy, is not by any means impressive.
i'll leave your little crush on castro alone. so what if the man kicked out, literally, boatloads of mentally ill folks? who cares if he's hated on the gay? he's your cuban idol.
i might be able to support some of these antics, but i've seen hedwig far too many times to not remember that absolute power corrupts (absoutely). or, maybe, if i hadn't done the journalism thing in college to think that even a media-entity that is bought off by capitalistic entities in some cases is still a neccessity in the context of providing information (albeit, still filtered) the government might not. (which is also not to forget that public owned media entities are even more absolutely necesity.) i just don't have enough faith in you to ensure "community owned" entities will stay that way, particularly since the current state-run ones don't particularly fulfill your claims.
anyway, for fuck's sake, just stop it.
no love
r
