Sheehan: Don’t Cry For Me, America … Exit Stage Left :: MAXINE

If she's a Moonbat for talking with another world leader, what does that say about an U.S. administration that supports dictators like Pakistan's Mussaraff, remember, he took power in a military coup and while promising elections, has yet to allow any and rountinely jails and tortures political dissidents.  Some of them Christians.  As to my certain knowledge, Venezuela has not illegally invaded other countries, tortured political dissidents, allowed it's military to kill at random, or used White Phosphorus on defenseless civilians.

The Chavez government is not guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.  As far bad-mouthing the United States, right now that is the most patriotic thing one could do.   I always find it amusing that conservatives who vocifereously talk of freedom to question their governments ridicule American citizens who employ what is their constitutionally protected right to dissent.

Here's more pragmatism for you.  Mr. Chavez' only "crime" is to not re-new a contract, which was his right.  American busineses do it all the time and the courts routinely side with them ostensibly because that is the letter of the law.  In the case of this privately owned network, their programmes, unless the European Union's media is lying, the opposition political parties television shows are being aired  on the state network.  That's a lot better than the U.S. which claims a 'liberal' media yet rarely, if ever, airs positions contrary to the Bush administration.  This has been empirically shown over and over again with material produced not by liberal or left-leaning media sectors, but by the major corporate news media itself.  Anyone who considers themselves  conservative  need only visit  FAIR.org or  Media Matters to understand the inherent bias within American media.

Chavez is playing smart.  After one coup attempt in part at the instigation of the Bush administration, (this is not idle speculation, in fact, neo-conservatives like Bill Kristol appaulded the decision) why would his government be expected to coddle the very same network that worked against him during the coup and continued to claim the government was in the hands of the military when they were informed it was not.  In our case, CNN, FOX, NBC, MSNBC, CBS et. al. continue to report that the Bush government is going great, that the invasion and occupation are good for the country while ignoring the U.S. dead, the Iraqi dead, the Afghan dead, the foreign worker dead or the U.S. military suicides stateside and abroad.  Has CNN reported on the use of White Phosphorus, a chemical weapon banned by international law?  Everyone in the world saw it but U.S. viewers.  Is this your concept of free press?

Do you want to discuss crimes?  Read the above.  Not one non-governmental agency has cited Venezuela for human rights abuses in connection to the Chavez government.  Several such agencies regulary cite the United States as a violator of human and civilian rights.  People are still harrassed and in some extreme cases, such as a 70 some year old man in new York State who refused to remove his "No War" t-shirt in a public mall and was arrested for treason, subject to criminal prosecution for employing their American right to tell the government that it is wrong.

Also, do you consider Bush "freely elected"??  African Americans were not even allowed to vote in two presidential elections due to racist voting fraud in Florida.  And after a federal investigation found out that there was mishandling of the election and that fraud DID occur, it happened again four years later in several states.   Still want to tell me about free elections?  Or are conservatives not accepting of not only physical evidence of voter fraud in the U.S., but the result of investigations conducted by the Bush federal government?  Is this the way of life you want to protect by making monsters out of those whop do not directly threaten you?  You speak of Chavez as if he said he was coming after you personally.  

It isn't a matter of difference of opinion.  Opinions, if they are worth anything, are based on something tangible.  My analysis is based on empirical evidence, not blind patriotism or delusions of American exceptionalism.   

Pirate Master?  Does this have any relevance to the issue you posted?  Why don't you just admit that you have nothing empirical to stand on? 

And for the record, I am not American.  My family was here centuries before any European accidentally washed up on these shores.  We had democracy here far ahead of the American government.  Or so says founding father Ben Franklin.  And that bit of information I gleaned from an American produced history book on U.S. governmental practise.