Tag: World Politics

OMG! He Shook Chavez’s Hand!

Is there anything that the Repubs will not jump on to find a hook to the American people?  The airways are full of the political whining and accusations.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tore into Pres. Obama Monday for his friendly greeting off Hugo Chavez, saying Obama is bolstering the “enemies of America.”

Gingrich appeared on a number of morning talk shows comparing Obama to President Jimmy Carter for the smiling, hearty handshake he offered Chavez, one of the harshest critics of the United States, during the Summit of the Americas.

I would like to point out a few facts about Venezuela….before the hate starts…..I am speaking of what has been done for the people, not the political posturing that is going on.

Chavez is in a unique position as the democratically elected populist president of 6th largest country in Latin America (and the first in regards to natural resources), to reject the neo-liberal policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the U.S. Treasury department and he has the financial ability to do so. This makes him extremely unpopular with the Washington Consensus and the global interests that they advance.

This alone is not enough. The average citizen in the Western world has no idea how the IMF works, who the World Bank is, or what the U.S. Treasury department actually does. If they are lucky enough to have a Union job they may have a vague idea of what the World Trade Organization is about. (Mostly regarding the relocation of their jobs overseas.)

Hugo Chavez is unpopular because the media portrays him as either, a) a charismatic demagogue, or b) a would-be dictator. Rarely is he portrayed as a popularly elected leader and social reformer despite the overwhelming evidence in support of that conclusion. This is because newspaper editors generally defer to stories which support and protect U.S. interests.

For instance, the program that brought 14,000 Cuban doctors who in turn established 11,000 neighborhood clinics in some of the poorest districts in Venezuela has largely gone unnoticed in the Western media. The same oversight applies to the literacy programs that have taught over a million adults how to read and write throughout the country. Where are the stories on the new schools and universities that have been built, most in the poorest districts? Where are the positive reports on the offer to sell discounted fuel for heating after the oil shortages during Hurricane Katrina?

Chavez is openly anti-American. But what exactly does that mean? He doesn’t like American foreign policy and the naked self-interests that it protects. But is the media really that patriotic? Doubtful.

I am not saying that the man is a fine example of how to win friends and influence people, most times he would be more effective if he would just shut up.

Keep in mind, while you are hating, that Chavez was popularly elected, whether you like his politics or not, the people of Venezuela elected him as their president.

The Midget Weasel Speaks

Normally, I am not one of those who goes about bashing France and its people.  I was there several times and enjoyed myself enormously, the people were warm and friendly.  But I have to draw a line when one of them is being a DICK.

The dickhead I am speaking of is French president Sarkozy, the malignant midget.

Recently when Pres. Obama was on a state visit to France it was all smiles and handshakes, but after the lights of the cameras dimmed the midget, the coward that he is spoke.

He has never been one to endear himself to his fellow heads of state. He has irritated with his boastfulness, exhausted with his hyperactivity and offended with his tendency to launch televised policy decimations and send text messages during meetings.

But, impressive though his track record is, he may now have outdone even himself. In the space of just one lunchtime, the French president has managed to belittle Pres. Obama, patronise Angela Merkel and insult José Luis Zapatero by questioning his intellectual firepower.

“He said that Obama had a subtle intelligence but that he was recently elected and had never run a state or an authority before,” Jean-Pierre Brard, a Communist MP, told the Guardian. Another guest quoted Sarkozy in the Libération newspaper as saying: “There are numerous things on which he [Obama] hasn’t got a position and … he is not always up to scratch with decisions and efficiency.”

Now you can see why the little prick is losing approval among the French, he has the personality of a rattlesnake in heat.  About the only thing keeping him where he is, in the presidential palace, is his wife.

Sarkozy shows the traditional “little Man Syndrome”, make up for being a midget by having a big mouth…. at least something on him is big.

World News Today

These are stories from the international scene that may not be a full post.

the Pakistani government imposed Section 144, or emergency rule, on the Sindh Province, matching a move yesterday in Punjab, and placing roughly two thirds of the nation’s 172 million people under harsh restrictions. The Punjab edict resulted in mass arrests of opposition members and a ban on all public gatherings. The Sindh edict has similarly banned public gatherings, and several have already been arrested. At least one district leader in Sindh has refused the order.

Shahbaz Sharif, who was Chief Minister of Punjab until last month when President Zardari imposed governor’s rule, today echoed his brother (former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif)’s call for people to take to the streets for a revolution.

This makes it to congress yet again….last time Turkey crapped on the deal.

Several U.S. lawmakers have written to President Barack Obama urging him to follow up on campaign statements and label the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide.

The pressure on Obama comes ahead of an expected presidential trip to Turkey, which has warned that such declarations by the United States would damage relations.

Turkey denies that up to 1.5 million Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War One. Turkey accepts many Armenians were killed, but denies they were victims of a systematic genocide.

Ronald Reagan was the only U.S. president to publicly call the killings genocide. Others avoided the term out of concern for the sensitivities of Turkey, an important NATO ally.

Good luck with that guys.

Obama’s new Afghan goals.

The White House objectives were expected to roughly parallel 15 goals contained in a 20-page classified report to the White House from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Among them were getting rid of terrorist safe havens in Pakistan and adopting a regional approach to reducing the threat of terrorism and extremism in both countries.

The U.S. goal in Afghanistan must be to protect Kabul’s fragile government from collapsing under pressure from the Taliban — a goal that can only be achieved by securing Pakistan’s cooperation, increasing substantially the size of Afghanistan’s national security forces and boosting economic aid in the region, according to senior military and intelligence officials.

The review addresses “the safe haven in Pakistan, making sure that Afghanistan doesn’t provide a capability in the long run or an environment in which al-Qaida could return or the Taliban could return,” Mullen said, as well as the need for stability, economic development and better governance in Afghanistan, and the development of the Afghan armed forces.

Propping up the Karzai government is kinda lame…basically he is the mayor of Kabul and the government is little more than the city council.  Afghanistan, where empires go to die……..

The Sleeping Bear Awakes

I have been writing about the re-emergence of Russia unto the world stage and as a awakening super power to be.  More proof:

Russia has decided to establish naval bases in Libya, Syria and Yemen within a few years, Itar-Tass news agency quoted military officials as saying on Friday, in a sign of Moscow’s growing foreign policy ambitions.

The Kremlin is seeking to play a more assertive role in world politics and has been using its military to project its new-found confidence beyond its borders.

Analysts have said that the Syrian port of Tartus could be revived as a Russian naval base. During the Cold War, the Soviet navy had a permanent presence in the Mediterranean, using Tartus as a supply point.

Russian media reported that opening a naval base in the Libyan port of Benghazi was among the main issues discussed during Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s visit to Moscow in October last year.

Nogovitsyn said it was unclear when Russian naval bases abroad could open. “No one can forecast when this problem will be solved,” he told Itar-Tass. “We need permanent bases, and this is very costly. You have to thoroughly calculate it all.”

My predictions were ignored 2 years ago and now I am vindicated….Tee Hee…Thanx comrade.

Ballot Box Gives What Revolution Cannot

For many many years Maoist guerrillas fought to control the country of Nepal.  Many deaths and many peace attempts and nothing was accomplished but more and more blood shed.  Recently a peace accord was signed and basically all parties honored it with minor outbreaks of violence here and there.

Then the election process began and the results were not what most of the world was looking for.

Nepal’s Maoists have accomplished at the ballot box what they did not achieve as guerrillas on the battlefield — winning a chance to transform their country.

Officials said Thursday that the former rebels have won the most seats in the Himalayan nation’s new governing assembly.

The Maoists, who are still considered terrorists by the United States, took more than double the number of their nearest rival in an April 10 election meant to seal a peace deal that ended their decade-long insurgency.

While the Maoists will not have an absolute majority in the 601-seat Constituent Assembly, they are expected to form the backbone of Nepal’s new government and usher in sweeping changes to the impoverished country.

Now we will see if they will try and push their Maoist ideology or if it was just they wanted the power to control the country.  Once again, extremist gain more power through the ballot box than with the gun.